La Maison de l’Institut de France à Londres, Knightsbridge

Completed: 2022

Practice Roles: Architect, Contract Administrator, and Quantity Surveyor

Consulting Engineer: Milk Structures

Contractor: Building & Decorating Ltd

The comprehensive renovation of this grade II listed hotel building included restoring some of the original layout, and removing lobbies, whilst introducing en suite showers to fourteen bedrooms, and making a generous managers flat. Details such as original cornicing and the stone staircase with its wrought iron spindles were painstakingly restored, but the interiors were given a distinctive lift with a vibrant new colour scheme insprired by the Institut’s motifs. The interiors are balanced with a timeless palette of tumbled limestone slabs in the hallway and wide oak floorboards in the reception rooms. La Maison proudly reopened its doors in September 2022, expanding Franco-British dialogue with renewed vigor and continued relevance in a post-Brexit, post-pandemic world.