MWAI Architects has updated an 1960s apartment in Hampstead, London, by rearranging a series of minimalist living spaces around an integrated wooden storage unit.

The clients asked MWAI Architects to improve the layout of the apartment called Oak Hill Park, to create a more open-plan space that would make moving through the home easier.

Working around the building's constraints of in-situ concrete columns and walls, the London-based practice removed all other existing partitions to make way for a single piece of joinery that acts as a simple divide between the kitchen and living room.

"Furniture plays a key role in the definition of space, furnishing is very much like offering tools for activities to take place," studio director Alessia Mosci told Dezeen.

"In this instance we felt that with one single gesture we could organise the circulation of the main living area."

Crafted from anigre timber, the sides of the storage block have been clad in stainless steel to reflect and disperse light coming from any nearby windows. While the back of the unit has been finished in black polished plaster to match the kitchen's subdued colour palette.

The use of African hardwood continues through to the residence's corridors, where wall panels have been stripped and replaced by pivoting wooden doors.

The bedroom, study and bathrooms have all been overhauled using a restrained palette of grey and white.

"We like the simplicity of the concrete structure and we felt it would provide the ideal background for a minimalistic fit-out," said Mosci. "We were able to concentrate on the design details and the integration of joinery, lighting and architecture.

"The main drive for the design of the scheme was simplicity."

The spaces are furnished with classic pieces that "give a familiar and comforting feel to the space", including an blue upholstered armchair designed by Italian architect Gio Ponti and a lamp by Italian designer Achille Castiglioni.

MWAI applied the same pared-back aesthetic to several of its previous renovation projects in west London, including a flat decked out in cool-grey tones, and a Victorian apartment that contrasts dark interiors with bright copper fixtures.

Photography is by Alexander James.