Stairs

The simple palette of the house of recycled bricks, terrazzo floors, timber floors. white painted walls and concrete breeze-blocks are put together in a thoughtful manner.

Floor-to-ceiling built-in shelving by Kable Design Build houses the family's beloved books. The area under the stairs has been transformed into additional storage, too.

The entryway.

The main circulation staircase is crafted completely from timber. This materiality is echoed in the large bespoke storage wall that runs beside it.

Designers Jaffer Kolb and Ivi Diamantopoulou had to contend with the apartment’s two giant columns. The loft’s outline conforms to one of them.

Dolce sits at the dining-room table in front of the elegantly slatted cypress divider, which separates the living space from the new staircase.

The living room sits at the rear of the house, connected to the garden. "Even though it's a very small house, we wanted the living room to be very generous," says the couple. "This room is the life of the house."

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.

The base of the stairwell includes a hidden compartment to conveniently store shoes.

The triple-height living space is scaled by a bold metal staircase.

Wildman Chalmers Design devised the interiors for Populus to build upon the building’s Aspen-tree inspired architecture by Studio Gang.

The treads, risers, and third-floor landing are all made of thicker gauge perforated metal, while the railings are expanded mesh.

A cantilevered staircase with tread and railings composed of translucent steel mesh now connects the second and third floors.