Living with Timber: Benni Allan’s Apartment as a Laboratory for Design
EBBA has built a reputation for quietly progressive work that merges craftsmanship with intellectual curiosity. The London–based practice, founded by architect and designer Benni Allan, has collected a string of accolades, including a nomination for the Dezeen Awards Emerging Architecture Studio of the Year in 2024 and the coveted YAYA Young Architect of the Year Award.
When their founder decided to reconfigure his own apartment in a converted tea warehouse, he saw it not just as a home but as a place to test the ideas that often get cut from client projects. The result, Living with Timber, is both personal and experimental — a live‑come‑showspace completed in 2025 where life, work and play overlap.
A home that doubles as a lab for ideas
The project unfolds as an essay on living and working with timber. Allan approached his top‑floor flat as a gallery that constantly evolves; collected objects and pieces from friends and collaborators are displayed throughout the space and swapped around as interests shift. Rather than finishing every detail, he intentionally left room for change so that the apartment could continue to host prototypes and future experiments.
Because the practice thrives on experimentation, Allan used his home to explore solutions rarely accepted in client commissions. A generous open‑plan living and kitchen area anchors the layout. Here, a large piece of joinery conceals the workings of the kitchen behind expansive cupboards. This intervention resolves a sharp angle in the original building while creating deep storage and preserving calm through raw plaster surfaces and warm timber.
Working with wood: Douglas fir and reclaimed mahogany
The design revolves around timber as structure, surface and research tool. Allan chose Douglas fir for walls, floors and custom cabinetry, treating the material as both finish and subject. He installed and finished the wood himself to investigate how a cost‑effective species can age gracefully. Reclaimed elements enrich the palette; sections of the floor use mahogany parquet salvaged from an earlier EBBA project that would otherwise have been discarded. By combining new and reused components, the apartment demonstrates how material stewardship and experimentation can coexist.
Allan has often spoken about his fascination with timber’s warmth and texture. He selected Douglas fir plywood for the floors and cut each sheet in half to create a subtle patchwork effect. To prevent the wood from yellowing, he applied a light wash that leaves a soft, pink undertone. The raw plaster walls echo these tones, adding to the sense of calm and connecting the space to nature.
Reconfiguring space: openness and concealment
Much of the renovation involved rethinking how rooms connect. In most conversions, corridors waste precious square metres; Allan removed part of the existing corridor to expand the living area and carved out a nook that functions as a utility cupboard. The main bedroom now opens directly onto the kitchen through a full‑height sliding door, allowing natural light to borrow its way into the interior. When the door is closed, the bedroom becomes a private retreat; when open, it lets the apartment feel more generous and interconnected.
A small study off the corridor doubles as a workshop filled with discarded materials awaiting their next transformation. This flexible approach blurs the line between living and making, letting prototypes and experiments seep into everyday life. Even the generous storage built into the main joinery piece supports this ethos by hiding appliances and clutter, maintaining a serene backdrop for evolving objects and ideas.
Objects and sound: furniture as work in progress
Living with Timber is not just a study in architecture; it is a showcase for furniture and objects designed by Allan and his collaborators. In the centre of the living space stands a stacked coffee table that serves as a prototype for a new collection EBBA is developing. Music is equally important. A bespoke speaker system made from Douglas fir, designed with Friendly Pressure and Our Department, brings another layer of experimentation to the home. Allan, who often plays vinyl and makes electronic music, sees these speakers as both instruments and sculptural elements.
The architect doesn’t own a television; instead, the living room is oriented around listening to jazz, house or electronic records with friends. This focus on sound reinforces the apartment’s immersive quality — art decorates space, while music decorates time.
EBBA’s philosophy in practice
The renovation of Allan’s apartment reflects EBBA’s broader approach to design. The practice pursues buildings and interiors that respond to context and material conditions, and it often collaborates closely with clients to develop bespoke solutions. Its research‑driven projects have garnered multiple awards, including recognition from Wallpaper and a place on the shortlist for Dezeen’s Emerging Architecture Studio of the Year. Winning the YAYA Young Architect of the Year Award in 2021 affirmed the studio’s commitment to inventive, materially conscious work.
In Living with Timber, these values are made tangible. The apartment is a living laboratory where ideas evolve over time. By embracing the imperfections of a reclaimed parquet floor, testing the durability of Douglas fir plywood and designing one‑off pieces of furniture and audio equipment, Allan demonstrates that a home can be both sanctuary and studio. It is a place where the warmth of wood isn’t just an aesthetic choice but a way of life — one that invites us to consider how the materials around us shape our daily rituals.
Editor’s Note
Client: Benni Allan / EBBA
Design: EBBA
Photography: Felix Speller
Area: London, United Kingdom
Year: 2025
Editor: Tony Hopkins
This feature is part of That Cool Magazine’s editorial series on thoughtful architecture and interior design around the world. While not a That Cool Living™ project, we are proud to highlight work that shares our ethos: quiet design, timeless materials, and spaces built to last.
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