Guided by modernist principles, Nick Gowing of ng architecture turned this office space into an apartment with gallery-like proportions and sweeping views.

A building can wear numerous guises in its lifetime. But while some pay architectural homage to past lives, others shun them altogether. Take this Notting Hill Gate triplex. There’s little in its present configuration that hints at its former incarnation as a banking office.

However, for Nick Gowing, founder and director of ng architecture, the apartment’s history was always front-of-mind during the renovation. A task that Nick diplomatically describes as “complicated”, the upper floors of the office were completely gutted – with the bank tenant in situ no less – to create a private residence over three levels.

“Conversions like this are always about fitting a round peg in a square hole, as domestic requirements are a million miles away from commercial,” he explains. “We had a simple structure to work with – a series of bays that thankfully worked well with bedroom and bathroom sizes.”

Despite the building being quite shallow in depth, a large lightwell enabled the studio to bolt glass boxes onto each floor to create “circulation space” and channel natural light throughout. Full-height windows and glass ceilings dial up the brightness even further.

“Light is always important, but needs to be managed,” notes Nick. In practice, this meant adding a double layer of solar and privacy blinds to the windows on the south-facing side of the building that overlook Notting Hill Gate.

The apartment might be divorced from its commercial heritage but the same can’t be said of its location. The vantage point over the neighbourhood from the expansive roof terrace stands as testament to that. “One of the main drivers was the connection to Notting Hill Gate as a street,” says Nick. “We wanted the apartment to feel closely linked to the street and feel the pulse of London but be managed in a way so that people can withdraw into their own calm space as and when.”

Minimalist interiors help evoke this sense of escapism. “I greatly admire the modernist movement – the use of light, proportion, space and a pared-down palette of materials,” says Nick of the guiding principles that define his work – and ng architecture’s trademark “timeless elegance”.

As well as reimagining buildings across all corners of the globe – from Brazil to Australia – ng architecture has completed more than 100 projects in London to date. The practice’s HQ, in leafy Chiswick, gives Nick and the team breathing room to map out forthcoming schemes, which include a Swiss chalet, a listed manor house in Northamptonshire and a house on the site of an old electricity substation in Barnes.

“Chiswick is a lovely place to live and work – it has a true village feel,” says Nick. “The architecture is quite distinct; with the suburban elegance of Bedford Park – the first garden suburb in London – the humble terraced cottages of the Glebe Estate, and the eclectic mix of waterside properties in Strand-on-the-Green.”

But wherever the project in question, the ng architecture approach always puts people first. “I like how each client is unique,” muses Nick. “We try to give them a house that feels like an extension of them, with as much or as little help from us as they desire.”

Notting Hill Gate is available for short stays from £3,000 per night