A former school sports hall in London has been reinhabited as a home and studio for its architect residents, who realised that living in a former school might be the ultimate lesson.
Choosing to live in a former school gym requires a certain confidence, a confidence London-and Milan-based architecture studio Tutto Bene directors Felizia Berchtold and Oskar Kohnen have in spades. For the couple, this London loft offered exactly what most people might shy away from: scale, discipline, and a building that knows precisely what it is. It was, in every sense, a chance to go back to school.
Built in 1902 by British architect T.J. Bailey, one of London’s most sought-after school architects, celebrated for symmetrical façades, dramatic rooflines with cupolas and gables, the building now serves as both their home base and creative atelier for Tutto Bene. “If Milan draws the gaze outward, London turns it inward,” Berchtold explains. “It’s where most of our work happens and where many of our closest friends live.”
The loft occupies the school’s former sports hall beneath the main roof. Naturally introverted, it has no outward views, only a three-storey volume with timber-trussed ceilings and a large gallery window. “It feels very cosy, like a sanctuary in the city,” Berchtold says. “There’s a strong ritual to the daily movement: waking up and going to sleep in the sky, then ascending and descending through the building. Even without outward views, you never feel cut off. There is so much sky that it avoids any sense of claustrophobia.”
The ground floor now serves as their studio: triple-height, open-plan, with six-metre walls punctuated by Victorian columns and clerestory windows. The herringbone floor still bears brass hooks from badminton nets, a nod to the energy the space has always contained. “We sometimes call our work here ‘idea ping pong,’ a continuous rally of creative development,” Kohnen says.
Living in a former gym foregrounds the body, Kohnen says, shaping movement, thought and feeling. “Spaces are physical and psychological first, and visual second. It reinforces something we’ve always believed: architecture doesn’t just frame life, it shapes how we move, think and feel.”
The loft is a space for experimentation, hosting gatherings, and making ideas tangible.“Big ideas need space,” Kohnen says. “And this building knows how to hold them.”
About
Tutto Bene is an ethos.
A pursuit of simplicity, an optimistic approach,
a commitment to excellence.
Tutto Bene is the interior, architecture, and design studio by Felizia Berchtold and Oskar Kohnen, based in London and Milan.
Bringing together their diverse backgrounds in architecture and interiors, Felizia and Oskar create environments for living, hospitality, and commercial spaces. Founded on a partnership of curious minds, Tutto Bene builds spatial narratives on meticulous research. Their varied projects are unified by a distinctive atmosphere, constructed with a balance of historical reverence and modern minimalism.
Organisation and discipline measured with the intriguing and the beautiful, a principle of ‘romantic simplicity’. Every space is uniquely composed, refined down to the last detail. Every element designed to elevate the harmony of the whole. Every material considered. Every point of contact felt.
Everything is good.
Photography Ludovic Balay
