Sandra Coppin Highpoint by Rachael Smith

SANDRA COPPIN – HIGHPOINT II DUPLEX, HIGHGATE, LONDON

Photographs Rachael Smith

Words Dominic Bradbury

Architect Sandra Coppin and her family have made their home at Highpoint, North London, for many years. They first fell in love with an apartment in Highpoint I, the Modernist tower of dreams built in the 1930s to a design by the pioneering architect Berthold Lubetkin.  When they began to outgrow the apartment, Coppin and husband Nico were on the verge of moving out when a duplex apartment came up for sale in Highpoint II next door – a building completed a few years later, in 1938, with just a dozen duplexes designed and built with more space and a more luxurious level of detailing. Despite Nico’s vertigo, they jumped at the chance to buy the flat on one of the uppermost sections of the building.

Coppin embarked upon a sensitive restoration and update of the apartment. The original Thirties bathrooms were carefully revived and wherever possible Coppin retained and restored the original fittings and features, including the crafted spiral staircase with its travertine treads. After a fire in a neighbouring apartment she was able to salvage a number of other original fittings that were being disposed of and add them to the mix. A new galley kitchen to Coppin’s design, inspired by the Highpoint originals, is elegant and practical while squeezing in modern appliances.

Coppin curated the interiors with a blend of new pieces and mid-century classics, making the most of the double height atrium that forms the centre piece of the main living space, leading out to a balcony with a panoramic view of London. Coppin also keeps a home office here, which forms a base for her architectural practice, Coppin Dockray, and has since worked on the interiors of a number of other apartments at Highpoint for clients.