Architecture &
Interior Design
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The Staircase That Ate the Living Room
The staircase was structural, central, and built as a solid masonry mass with a plastered balustrade, so it did not simply occupy the living room, it divided it, cutting the only window off from two thirds of the floor. Relocating it was priced early and dismissed just as early.
What could change was everything except its position. The solid balustrade came off and was replaced with a slim mild-steel frame and open treads, which let the window reach the back of the room for the first time. The volume underneath, previously sealed, became the storage the flat had been missing. The stair takes up exactly the same footprint. It stopped behaving like a wall.
- Home
- Duplex apartment, 1,600 sq ft
- Scope
- Staircase rework, living area replan
- Materials
- Mild-steel frame, open treads, understair joinery
- Status
- Completed 2022
A closer look
Open treadsThe window reaches the back of the room for the first time.
Steel balustradeSlim enough to see past, which the plastered one never was.
Understair storageVolume that had been sealed inside masonry for twenty years.