Poplar Mews, London, UK

This office in a narrow mews in West London is for Anton Corbijn who makes videos and photographs of musicians, often on location, while his assistant remains behind to manage the office and photographic archives.

The ground floor is filled with light from translucent windows facing the mews, and is laid out as a generous working space and a dignified room in which to receive visitors.

The desks, cupboards and stair are designed to reveal their form as you move around them and rhyme with the shapes of telephones, photocopiers and VDU monitors, and to be straightforward and purposeful when used.

Traditional joinery techniques have been used for the cabinets which hold the photographic archives so that they are durable and practical. This also gives them an air of being deeply known, while the restless equality and numberless ness of the sliding drawers gives them a surreal quality.

The stair, which connects the ground floor to Anton's studio above, is a steep body-sized room into which light comes from a high space above.

Anton's studio has a small darkroom next to the stair, and a work table to hold his materials and equipment. A light table is set into the end of the work surface so that he can refer to transparencies while working on a print.

Space is left between this and the side wall so that he can sit facing a different direction, or so that someone else can work at the light table with him.

At times he will watch videos, show a client the work he has made, or sit and reflect. The studio lighting is variable; sources include two narrow spotlights in the ridge of the ceiling, concealed fluorescent lights and a table lamp.