WHEN Juan Corbella first saw the Clerkenwell space in 1998, it was a shell. The 1900s building had latterly been a print works. There was ink on the floor and Page 3 girls on the walls. Corbella, who moved to England in 1994, was smitten.

Standing amid the dirt, he envisaged a massive open-plan living space and two bedrooms. The 41-year-old City trader knew he wanted to do the work himself. “I need to be creative,” says the Mexican, who was raised in Spain.

The vendor, a developer, planned to turn the 2,600sq ft space into two luxury apartments.

“For the shell, I had to pay the price intended for the finished property,” explains Corbella, with equanimity. He forked out £600,000 and spent a further £300,000 on everything from renovations to the stereo. A stereo which, incidentally, is a state-of-the-art Lynn affair with Dalek-sized speakers.

The transformation from rubble to sophisticated bachelor pad was not easy. He hired architects Andrew Hanson and Richard Webb, who worked closely to his specifications. And Corbella, who lived nearby, went onsite most days.

First, they had to move a staircase that separated the two spaces. Then the builders went bankrupt and downed tools. “I was meant to move in in June 1999,” says Corbella. “Instead, it took until February 2000.”

The finished result was worth the wait.

Two curved, frosted-glass structures provide the hall walls and screen the living area from view. They are actually shower enclosures.

Do arriving visitors see the occupants bathing? “Of course,” laughs Corbella.

A 2,000sq ft sitting room leads off the hall, flanked on one side by a wall of windows, on another by a bank of 14 white cupboards and on the remaining sides by sliding, glass partitions, used to hide the kitchen and create a corridor.

The overall feeling is sensual: there are pillars, curved walls, curved furniture, curved false ceilings to hide pipes, even curved edges to the steps leading to floors on slightly different levels. The floor is oak and the walls are white, alongside splashes of Mexican primal colours. And it is all lit by seductive, atmospheric lighting created by a Lutron system.

The windows define the sitting, dining and television areas. Recently, they were fitted with 3M Night Vision, a film that reduces UV rays, heat and glare. “Until then, it was boiling in here,” explains Corbella. “And the furniture was getting ruined.”

A brass Mexican monkey is suspended from the sitting-room ceiling. This area also boasts electric-blue sofas and orange chairs by Moroso, a bright yellow wall, exposed brickwork and a blue Lucy Wassell rug with geometrical shapes that Corbella helped to design. There is also a bulky, Islamic-style, hexagonal coffee table created by David Linley, again to Corbella’s specifications.

“Look …” he says, and suddenly disassembles it to create six occasional tables.

Nearby is the television “room”, with a red leather aquiline couch and a large flatscreen television, which (a Corbella invention, this) swivels on an aluminium pole.

A cupboard with curved edges (Corbella-designed, natch) conceals floor-to-ceiling opera CDs … and we’re talking a high ceiling here. “I’m passionate about opera,” reveals Corbella, needlessly. The “study corner” houses a bespoke Linley bureau (which cost £16,000 in 1995), with its terrace of architectural model veneer houses and tower hiding his stationery. “Linley was sceptical of my idea that this asymmetrical design would work.” But work it does.

AT THE other end of the apartment is the dining area, with a B&B Italia glass table and silver leather chairs from Catalan Italia.

A metal-and-glass display table – again designed by You Know Who – contains a large decorative egg collection.

“I didn’t buy one egg. They’re mostly gifts from my parents. Once you have 10 eggs, everyone assumes you collect them.”

This area leads onto the compact kitchen.

Eye-arresting, pillar-box-red lacquer units are opened via sculptural geometrical cutouts (from boomerang to bone shapes.) “I didn’t want handles,” he explains. There is a breakfast island and black granite work surfaces. “I took cordon bleu and Le Manoir cookery courses. I like doing dinner parties.”

The master bedroom has exposed-brick and light-blue and yellow walls, one with wooden columns on it. And a four-poster frame around a £10,000 Auping bed. “The frame was made by Nicky Stephens. When he ran out of English walnut, he had to wait for another English tree to fall down.” It took seven months to finish.

Pull back the glass panels and the bathroom (Philippe Starck bath, blue mosaic-glass shower) becomes part of the bedroom. Next door is a guest bedroom and bathroom.

It is all extremely comfortable and everything is made with great precision – no expense spared. It is also a City whizz kid’s remote-control heaven, where almost everything operates by touch.

This man of many talents is now looking for a new loft. He wants better views and outside space. “But mostly I want to do up something again,” says Corbella, restlessly.

“It was fun.”

With that, he presses a control on his bed, and the mattress starts moving into different positions.

HOW TO GET THE LOOK

Architects

Web Architects Ltd: Richard Web and Andrew Hanson (020 7328 0310)

Furniture and fittings

David Linley Furniture Ltd (020 7730 7300, www.davidlinley.com)

Sofas and chairs by Moroso, dining table by B&B Italia, dining chairs by Catalan Italia available at Atrium (020 7379 7288, www.atrium.ltd.co.uk)

Bed by Royal Auping (020 7935 3774, www.auping.co.uk). Frame by Nicky Stephens, carpenter, at Raleigh Workshop (020 7733 8110)

Rug by Lucy Wassell at WaWa (020 7729 6768, www.wawa.co.uk)

3M Night Vision film for heat and UV ray reduction by Durable (0870 240 2480, www.durable.co.uk)

Motorised blinds with remote control by Luxaflex (0800 652 7799, www.luxaflex.com)

Lutron lighting system (0800 282 107, www.lutron.com)

Radiators by Bisque (020 7328 2225, www.bisque.co.uk)