“We’re very much into creating spaces
that you feel and experience” MERLIN EAYRS
from the windows. “We’re very much
into creating spaces that you feel and
experience,” says Eayrs.
The couple’s priorities have changed
since having daughter Max, 2, and the
pair has now bought a property in
St Ives, Cornwall, right by the sea.
“We started longing for greener,
cleaner air,” says Chan Eayrs. “That
led to wanting to build a completely
green house, which is at one with the
landscape both aesthetically and in
terms of its performance,” Eayrs adds.
It’s early days, but this project
should offer this release.“Through technology,
people feel both physically and psychologically more
disconnected,” says Chan Eayrs. “There’s a longing
for a bit more humanity in the objects we touch,
even the food we eat. I think people seek comfort
in knowing that something has been touched by a
human hand. We’re doing that on an architectural
scale — crafting it from the inside out.” ››As architects, the couple set about doing
something different with the establishment of Chan
+ Eayrs in London in 2014. “A normal architect
wouldn’t find the site or write the brief,” says Chan
Eayrs. “They would just do the drawings and then
hand it over to the contractor, who usually has
a very different set of goals.”
Instead, the pair finds and buys a site or existing
building, then proceeds to design or redesign it,
living onsite throughout the transformation. The
couple completes one project at a time — four houses
to date — and doesn’t have clients because their
houses are not commissioned. “Our whole concept
is about this idea of the home,” says Chan Eayrs. “It’s
the most emotional and special connection that you
can have with a physical place.” With each house,
they create a new expression of just that: home.
Undertaking the interior design, too, the pair
works with makers and curates every detail down
to the ceramics, then sells the house as a complete
entity, forks and all. “Because we do all of the
interior, there is no distinction between the
architectural and interior elements,” says Eayrs.
“There’s a seamlessness to the final composition.”W
orking together isn’t
always plain sailing,
though. “At the
beginning, we would
clash a lot,” says
Chan Eayrs. “It took a while to figure
out, what are we better at? What do we
prefer?” The way each works is different.
“I like to be using my hands," says
Eayrs, “and evolving the design through
touching and shaping materials.”
Chan Eayrs describes her husband as
“a people person; he likes to be out and
about. I prefer to be at home, sketching,
thinking, dreaming. It worked much
better when we started playing to our
strengths because we were also then
happier. We got space from each other
to be creative.”
Their combined aesthetic is very
natural and sumptuous, and deeply but
subtly narrative. Textures are rich and
refined, their palette muted and clean.
For The Weavers House, an old
Huguenot townhouse typical of London’s
Spitalfields, the pair echoed the traditional wood
panelling of these distinctive buildings with oak
dados bedecked with unfinished lime plaster walls.
For The Beldi, a converted loft in Shoreditch, a pale
green tone lingers throughout, bathing you in its
reflected light. It offers both a tonic for the urbanity
of outside, and an empathy with the treetops visibleABOVE, FROM LEFT RIGHT
Merlin Eayrs and Zoe Chan
Eayrs with daughter Max.
In the dining area of The
Weavers House, antique French
farmhouse table; mid-century
dining chairs reupholstered
with Pierre Frey velvet; 1960s
Semi brass pendant light by
Claus Bonderup and Torsten
Thorup for Gubi.62 vogueliving.com.auPHOTOGRAPHER: TOBY LEWIS THOMAS (PORTRAIT), MICHAEL SINCLAIR (THE WEAVERS HOUSE)VLife