My Home: Rock Galpin, designer

Rock Galpin, a product and furniture designer, and the winner of the 2005 Laurent Perrier Design Award, lives in a one-bedroom penthouse flat near Shoreditch, London

As soon as I walked into this flat, I felt uplifted. It's a fantastically bright place with a huge window down one side, creating a tranquil and almost spiritual atmosphere.

Being on the top floor provides me with views of the sunset over Hampstead Heath, endless amounts of sky and, from the terrace, I can see the Gherkin [the Swiss Re Tower], which is lovely. I moved here in March last year, at the same time as establishing my company, Rock Galpin Ltd, and setting up Rock Galpin Studio quite nearby in London Fields.

The new-build block was designed by Hawkins\ Brown. It's a lovely-looking thing, clad externally with several different materials: slatted timber, slim sandy-coloured bricks, glass, silver metal and galvanised sheets. It's a very efficient building in terms of energy use, with extremely low fuel-consumption and economical appliances throughout. Beneath my bamboo floor there is an integral heating system controlled by computer, so it's all very slick and state-of-the-art.

The kitchen and living area are open-plan so the light circulates well. I have a distinct aim for the interior of my home. I like simple, bright, light spaces and I like to keep it minimal. I don't keep everything filed away in little boxes, though, but I do like spaces to be free and open, without too much detail. And I like low-level, relaxing pieces of furniture, long horizontal lines that produce a calming effect.

I have a few of my own pieces around, although they're all quite old, most with stories attached. There are two leather sofas that I originally designed for The Light Bar, a project that involved the production of 200 pieces of furniture. The chunky sofas for the lounge area went down really well so I put them into production myself through my own industrial design company, Studio Orange, formed in 1995. I altered them a bit in the process, making them lower, named them Block and have kept two of them, in a burnt plum colour.

Outside on the terrace are my stackable Solar chairs. Made of teak and chrome, they are made for outside use and were also designed for The Light and later became part of my own range. My work seems to have taken me in this direction, with my designs appealing to restaurants, bars and clubs, and I think this is the best area for me.

My dining room table was originally produced in response to a commission by Central St Martin's. They wanted a design for a student's desk and my solution was this simple aluminium-framed table. They were very pleased with it and used it throughout the college. I produced it with a choice of a white top for use as a desk or a timber top as a dining table.

Apart from my own stuff, I have an Eames lounge-chair and footstool that's part of their aluminium group and also one of their wire mesh chairs called Bikini, available from Vitra. There is a debate about who designed this chair as Harry Bertoia worked closely with the Eameses and both claimed it as theirs. It's made of a wire frame with a kind of Eiffel Tower base, upholstered in two panels that join in the middle. I've actually taken the top part off as I find it's more comfortable that way. I also have a sideboard that I'm very attached to, bought by my parents and handed on to me. It's an original Danish design in cherry wood, from the 1970s.

I'm a big fan of white walls. Colours have a very powerful emotional effect and can grate on your feelings if they hit the wrong note, so I prefer the colour in a room to come from paintings and pieces of furniture that can be changed as necessary. Having said that, I haven't actually chosen the colours of most of my pieces of furniture. If I took out my own pieces, I would probably replace them with something a bit more colourful.

One of my designs, Cocoa, is an L-shaped modular sofa in a tweed fabric in lime green with flecks of white, blue and yellow. They're sold in Purves and Purves. I might have to get myself one. Smaller objects that I love include Marc Newson's salt- and pepper-pots, Richard Sapper's coffee pot designed for Alessi, and my Jasper Morrison kettle. And for Christmas, my mother gave me the nicest saucepan, made by Le Creuset, in polished stainless steel, as part of her mission to get me to cook for myself. I now feel committed to developing a collection of the whole range, which will probably mean taking out a loan.

On my white walls, I would ideally like to hang a huge abstract expressionist painting by De Kooning. Until that day comes, the Tate Modern have a great range of prints that are made to order and can be printed on to watercolour paper. You can choose the size that you want and a frame. It's a great idea and I might go for one of those. In the meantime, I've got two pictures waiting to go up - black and white photos of my grandpa driving his racing car. He owned a chain of chemist shops and raced only as a hobby and I don't think he ever won a circuit race, but he was successful enough to hold a place in the top 10 for years.

Winning the Laurent Perrier award in September was a great thrill. Five hundred designers were selected and paired up with manufacturers. I was teamed with Designers Guild, created the Sketch modular sofa and Easy lounge chair and footstool, made it to the shortlist and was surprised to find that I had won.

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