This modest ex-council house in Hackney, London is home to New Zealand artist Francis Upritchard and her Italian husband and furniture designer, Martino Gamper.
I loved this house the first time I came across it in AD (Architectural Digest) while in Ibiza. Being a Spanish magazine I could barely understand a word of the article but I pored over it again and again. The house is brimming with colour, original design, Francis’s art and Martino’s handmade furniture. And all on a budget in a very humble working class house. What’s not to love?!
Francis bought the house on her own before she met Martino. It was at a time when Hackney was not the hip, happening place it is today, but a run down impoverished neighbourhood. She confesses to having been scared when she first moved in, and that the house was filthy and in need of lots of work, being formerly occupied by eight students. With little money her brother and sister helped her to start ripping the place apart, knocking two sitting rooms into one to create a larger, open living space.
When Francis met Martino he offered his help and began to assist with the renovations. Because of her small budget, Francis originally filled the house with furniture that she’d found on the streets, but this has changed over the years and it’s now filled with Martino’s amazing designs. He makes and designs everything from tables and chairs to cupboards. But the love of salvaging is a love they both share and it has been a big part of Francis’s and Martino’s work. A major design project of Martino’s was making 100 chairs in 100 days out of chairs that he collected over two years, either found on the streets or donated by friends.
Despite Martino being the furniture designer it was Francis who designed the kitchen. I just love her sense and use of colour. All the doors are different and it really works…
Martino designed the kitchen table and chairs. The table legs are a work of art in themselves…
Francis represented New Zealand in the 2009 Venice Biennalle with an installation entitled Save Yourself. It was spread across three rooms displaying the works Long, Lonely, and Dancers on huge tables. She says, “I want to create a visionary landscape, which refers to the hallucinatory works of the medieval painters Hieronymus Bosch and Pieter Brueghel, and simultaneously draws on the utopian rhetoric of post-sixties counterculture, high modernist futurism and the warped dreams of survivalists, millenarians and social exiles.”
Above: WORKS DISPLAYED AT THE VENICE BIENNALE
Although most of the furniture has been designed by Martino, the couple have many creative friends who have contributed over the years. This fantastic Franco Albini chair (below left) was a wedding gift from a friend…
A parquet floor runs throughout the living space, adding an interesting yet neutral, unifying backdrop to the otherwise colourful home. Like a lot of their interior projects it was sourced cheaply, this time in Croatia while Martino was there for design work. He says, “They use this as an under-flooring for real parquet. But I like it because it has all these knots in it and actually has a lot of character.” However, the cost was still significant so friends helped them buy it and even helped install it. Though Francis says it took many times longer than it should have, the result is worth it. And as a memento for all their hard work the friends’ names are carved into some of the sections. So, like everything in the house, even the floor is personal!
In the hall, stacked boxes act as a bookcase and storage…
And in the bedrooms there are more of Francis’s sculptures and Martino’s furniture. Like this playful giant cupcake…
Amazing lampshades Francis made…
And a seated psychedelic figure from the Biennale…
Even the loo is arty!
The couple’s studios are separate rooms, housed within the same building just a ten minute cycle ride away from their home…
I really hope you’ve loved this house as much as I have and that it will encourage lots of us to fill our own homes with our own creations. I’ll leave you with a short film. Enjoy…
words: CAND JUSKUS, FRANCIS UPRITCHARD, MARTINO GAMPER
images: FRANCIS UPRITCHARD, MARTINO GAMPER, NYTIMES, AD, NICOLE BACHMANN
