stairs

Kitchen

By eliminating the attic and carving out a former crawl space, Red Dot Studio created room for the residents’ bedrooms underneath the primary living areas. The slatted-hickory-and-glass bridge allows light from a row of skylights to penetrate deep into the lower level.

The architects replaced the original, carpeted stairway with one built from black walnut. “[The goal] was to mirror a large tree that had to be felled in the garden before the project started,” Webster explains. “The staircase rises up through the building, with the branches being the landings that reach out to the different rooms.” Tom Dixon lights hang at the center of the stairs.

Staircase

The interior consists entirely of exposed concrete accented by wood. The ground floor features double-height ceilings that maximize natural light from the lightwells above.

staircase

the stair is walnut clad

totem & staircase

Nouvel Approach When the Nouvel staircase proved too costly to copy, DeSalvo designed an affordable version. The treads are perforated bent steel plates that appear to float on a support tube, while the railings are made from tension cables and galvanized handrails and posts. It offers a similar level of architectural impact and sense of transparency at relatively low cost (both stairways, plus a matching catwalk, came in at $6,000).