The Young British Art Movement, radical new-age thinking, rebellious design and controversial art-theory are the inspiration for the revitalisation of the historic Allara. Respecting the rich culture and architecture of the building, we seek to restore its natural raw beauty, before injecting unexpected moments of contemporary culture, representing the youth of its occupier. This heritage listed Georgian Revival estate was built by Jeffrey Forest Hughes, father of the controversial art critic and author Robert Hughes. Inspired by Robert’s doctrine, of democratising the elite world of art consumption, new insertions of art, integrated seamlessly into the historic interior, subvert the traditional method of restoration.

Working with young, cutting-edge, radical artisans with new-age materials, this project sits outside of the traditional discourse. It became an exercise in blurring the lines between art, Architecture and Interior Design; an obsession with extracting the essence of the original building and reinterpreting this into an entirely new aesthetic. Not just a layer of decoration.

“Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s interventions in the natural world and the built environment altered both the physical form and the visual experience of the sites, thereby allowing viewers to perceive and understand the locations with a new appreciation of their formal, energetic and volumetric qualities.” Through a similar form of intervention, we seek to capture the beauty of the existing home whilst imbuing it with the spirit of rebellion.