How Two Designers Turned an Industrial Workshop Into a Family Home

This is an excerpt from the book Home for Now by Earl of East, published by gestalten in 2026. The text is by Paul Firmin, and the photos are by Sarah Victoria Bates.

From Workshop to Home

When Shai Akram and Andrew Haythornthwaite first stepped inside their Stoke Newington property, it was far from the haven it would become. A former flour shop in Victorian times, later a hackney carriage station and ceramic studio, the building still had oil-stained floors and makeshift walls, but it was brimming with possibility. Instead of saving for a mortgage, the couple invested the money they would have spent into making their rental something entirely unique. "It felt like a barn—a space you could stretch out in," Shai recalls. They set about partitioning the large, industrial shell into three separate spaces for working, living, and sleeping, all while keeping that feeling of openness intact. The structure evolved again when their first child arrived and family life was folded into their live/work experiment.

There are few doors in the home; most rooms are closed off by curtains or partial partitions that rise but never quite meet the ceiling. Two mezzanines built like tree houses nod to the couple’s playful approach to design. One was made for the children—complete with a colorful climbing wall and aerial silk—and the other built to be accessed by a pulley ladder. 

The Architecture of Improvisation

Every inch of the home has been shaped by a shared eye for design and a respect for the temporary nature of their space. As renters, Shai and Andrew have a rule: every change they make must be reversible. The room dividers are built from full sheets of carefully selected plywood and held in place without nails, a narrow shadow gap tracing the space where wood meets floor. The contrast of rustic wood with white walls and beams creates something stylish and unique. "We treated everyday materials as if they were precious," says Andrew.