House in a Pine Wood by Sundaymorning and Massimo Fiorido Associati

A staircase is extruded from the wooden shelves of a bookcase at this renovated house in Tuscany by Italian architects Sundaymorning and Massimo Fiorido Associati.

House in a Pine Wood by Sundaymorning and Massimo Fiorido Associati

Named House in a Pine Wood, the single-storey residence was first constructed in the 1960s on a sandy site that is closely surrounded by pine, oak and myrtle trees.

House in a Pine Wood by Sundaymorning and Massimo Fiorido Associati

The architects re-clad the exterior of the house in travertine marble and constructed a wooden deck around the perimeter.

House in a Pine Wood by Sundaymorning and Massimo Fiorido Associati

Windows are deeply recessed and some are hinged at the centre so that they swivel open.

House in a Pine Wood by Sundaymorning and Massimo Fiorido Associati

This is the second house in Italy we’ve featured in the last week, following a gabled house with boxy windows.

House in a Pine Wood by Sundaymorning and Massimo Fiorido Associati

See more projects in Italy »

House in a Pine Wood by Sundaymorning and Massimo Fiorido Associati

Here’s some more text from Sundaymorning:


Context

The pinewood of Marina di Castagneto Carducci was born early last century as a result of a process of reclamation of the coastal dune belt.

House in a Pine Wood by Sundaymorning and Massimo Fiorido Associati

In the late Fifties architect Giancarlo De Carlo draw up an urban development characterized by the large presence of the landscape, in which buildings, surrounded by dunes dotted with pines, oaks and myrtles, with strong character and individuality are connected by paths that follow the free conformation of the landscape.

House in a Pine Wood by Sundaymorning and Massimo Fiorido Associati

The consequence of this, but especially because a rapid process of tissue development built since the Sixties, is the heterogeneity of the architectural presence: buildings realized with quality, often characterized by the use of stone walls as an expressive character, with formal features that often do not disdain to look at the best Italian and European experiences of the Fifties, are counterbalanced by buildings of little value, inconsistent in their morphological and decorative devices, often the result of successive transformations and uncertain.

House in a Pine Wood by Sundaymorning and Massimo Fiorido Associati

Opportunity

The work presented here was created by the occasion of a renovation of a summer residence built in the Mid-Sixties. The poor architectural quality of the existing building is an opportunity to think about the quality of the landscape in which the building stands on a sand dune, surrounded by pine trees located in singular points, often very close to the walls.

House in a Pine Wood by Sundaymorning and Massimo Fiorido Associati

The project outlines a double perspective: on one hand the need to find a synthesis between the nature of the building – although still to be discovered – and the morphological and color values of the place where it is located, the other hand the desire to place the character of the interior in keeping with a trend made of comfort, domesticity, appropriateness. All this applies especially in the modulation of light and views, to the extent and shape of spaces, in the discretion of the materials.

House in a Pine Wood by Sundaymorning and Massimo Fiorido Associati

A longitudinal ideal director, through the whole building, allowing you to find a convergence between two significant operational aspects: firstly, the redefinition of the internal space, which translates into a sequence of rooms through closely related to each other and with the landscape surrounding, and secondly the identification of the character of the building in a new morphology, at the same time natural and archetypal, finding in the horizontal sediment a new axpressive character.

House in a Pine Wood by Sundaymorning and Massimo Fiorido Associati

From these thoughts descend the criterion of remodeling openings in the building: almost all different but built taking into account both the sequence of the interior, the relationship between the room and the external balance, the relationship mass-punching of the building.

House in a Pine Wood by Sundaymorning and Massimo Fiorido Associati

This is especially evident in the large dining-room window, at the end of successive openings of the same size, framing a view of the dune landscape.

House in a Pine Wood by Sundaymorning and Massimo Fiorido Associati

Matter

The emergence of the archetypal character of the intervention is manifested in the morphology of the new shape, which highlights the double-pitched roof and a certain compact terminals in the two fronts – but mitigating these formal features in the central, predominantly horizontal.

House in a Pine Wood by Sundaymorning and Massimo Fiorido Associati

The material used for the exterior, a travertine marble, helps to read the morphology of the building as a result of an ideal unit mass made of different sediments, giving further color consonance with the surrounding landscape.

House in a Pine Wood by Sundaymorning and Massimo Fiorido Associati

The limited range of materials – travertine marble cladding also present in the interior, plaster, teak wood, used to give continuity to the horizontal planes inside and out – helps to make a presence in the pinewood grove that thrives on a refined ambiguity: while providing a comfortable refuge from the outside world, both within himself introduces the landscape that surrounds it.

House in a Pine Wood by Sundaymorning and Massimo Fiorido Associati

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House T by Hiroyuki Shinozaki Architects

There are huge rectangular holes in the walls and floors of this Tokyo house by Japanese studio Hiroyuki Shinozaki Architects.

House T by Hiroyuki Shinozaki

Wooden ladders connect each of the four split-level storeys and a staircase with built-in storage leads up from the ground floor studio to the dining room and kitchen on the staggered floor above.

House T by Hiroyuki Shinozaki

One ladder travels up from the dining room to the living room, which then steps down to the bedroom through the wide hole in the wall.

House T by Hiroyuki Shinozaki

Another ladder connects the living room with the skeletal top level, where four holes in the floor give the room a cross-shaped layout.

House T by Hiroyuki Shinozaki

A small study area is sunken into one of these holes and residents use the floor above it as a desk.

House T by Hiroyuki Shinozaki

Lamps of different lengths also hang through the holes and a final ladder leads up to a terrace on the roof.

House T by Hiroyuki Shinozaki

Similar Japanese houses we’ve featured include a split-level residence with a narrow lightwell and another house with holes in the walls.

House T by Hiroyuki Shinozaki

See all our stories about Japanese houses »

House T by Hiroyuki Shinozaki

Photography is by Hiroyasu Sakaguchi.

House T by Hiroyuki Shinozaki

Here’s some information from the architects:


House T is a residence and atelier for a couple in the centre of Tokyo. Floors like bookshelves are placed at the different level in the shifted box.

House T by Hiroyuki Shinozaki

Furniture is put on each floor to create living room, dining room, kitchen and bedroom.

House T by Hiroyuki Shinozaki

The floors are only hooked by columns which are three-dimensionally intersected at the middle of the box.

House T by Hiroyuki Shinozaki

This simple structure gives latitude for space composition.

House T by Hiroyuki Shinozaki

In the massive volume of the box, each different activity of daily living takes place at each floor with open view.

House T by Hiroyuki Shinozaki

Lighting hangs from top of the box to each floor to illuminate them like a floating stage.

House T by Hiroyuki Shinozaki

Client: A couple

House T by Hiroyuki Shinozaki

Location: Tokyo, Japan

House T by Hiroyuki Shinozaki

Built area: 75.62 sq m (total)

House T by Hiroyuki Shinozaki

Completion date: May 2012

House T by Hiroyuki Shinozaki

Structure: Wood Flame, two-storey

House T by Hiroyuki Shinozaki

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227 Flat by OODA

227 Flat by OODA

A suspended net provides a hammock over the staircase of this apartment in Porto by architects OODA

227 Flat by OODA

Residents can climb onto the net from a top-floor landing and there’s room for a couple of people to sit down at once.

227 Flat by OODA

Sliding glass doors on one side of the hammock open out to a terrace with a view out to sea.

227 Flat by OODA

The architects installed the net during a renovation of the whole two-storey apartment and have also added wooden floors in each room.

227 Flat by OODA

We’ve previously featured a set of hammock seats suspended from a metal structure.

227 Flat by OODA

See more stories about apartments »

Photography is by ctrl + N.

Here are a few more words from OODA:


227 FLAT
Porto 2012

In a place nearby the sea in Porto, we had the chance to design a complete transformation of a two storey apartment.

227 Flat by OODA

It was our intention to play with the light that strongly flows into the apartment merging it with new program needs.

227 Flat by OODA

The relation between voids, volumes and the function among then was the prime project drive aiming to create fine detailing while suggesting new surprising spaces and features to be used and lived in a daily basis.

227 Flat by OODA

Team: Diogo Brito, Rodrigo Vilas-Boas, Francisco Lencastre

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Design Collective by Neri&Hu

A boxy wooden staircase twists up through the floors of this design store in Shanghai by architects Neri&Hu.

Design Collective by Neri&Hu

The architects refurbished an existing building to create the Design Collective store, which houses a series of showrooms including one for their own furniture brand Design Republic.

Design Collective by Neri&Hu

A huge steel funnel leads customers into the triple height atrium, where products are displayed within recesses in the walls.

Design Collective by Neri&Hu

Design Republic is located on the ground floor beside an exhibition and events space, while eight more showrooms are located on the two upper levels.

Design Collective by Neri&Hu

Patterned panels made from carbon fibre cover the building’s entire exterior, transforming its appearance and giving it a new identity.

Design Collective by Neri&Hu

See more projects by Neri&Hu here, including the award-winning hotel they designed in a disused army headquarters and our movie interview with them at last year’s Inside awards.

Design Collective by Neri&Hu

See all our stories about staircases »

Photography is by Shen Zhonghai.

Design Collective by Neri&Hu

Here’s some more information from Neri&Hu:


The new Design Collective is located in the outskirt of Shanghai in a town called Qingpu. Neri&Hu inherited an existing building and was given the task to completely redesign both the exterior and the interior without demolishing the existing structure.

Design Collective by Neri&Hu

Neri&Hu’s concept was to cover the existing building to create a new exterior identity and simultaneously fabricate an introverted spatial platform to create a new identity for the Design Collective, a group of avant garde furniture retail initiative in the city.

Design Collective by Neri&Hu

The existing building has been completely covered with an opaque graphic wrapper made with carbon fiber panel to create an introverted spatial condition to showcase furniture both visually and experientially.

Design Collective by Neri&Hu

The main entry is characterized by a large steel funnel, serving as a transition element from the urban context to the exhibition space.

Design Collective by Neri&Hu

The shape of the entry tube also serves as a means of emphasizing the arrival into the 3 story exhibition hall where the visitors introverted journey begins.

Design Collective by Neri&Hu

The staircase wrapping the interior of the main exhibition space leads the visitor throughout the multiple levels of display where the furniture can be experienced from varying spatial relationship and viewed form different vantage points and voyeuristic snippets of retail display.

Design Collective by Neri&Hu

This journey is accentuated as the visitor climbs higher through the gallery levels by the seven large openings in the roof which serve to allow daylight into the exhibition space while at once generating a moment of visual release from within the introverted exhibition environment.

Design Collective by Neri&Hu

Design Republic Qingpu store is located on the first floor, with a total area of 2,000 sqm. Design Republic offers a unique collection of products created by the world’s best design talents collaborates with many designers both foreign and local to create products that will explore a new modern Chinese aesthetic.

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Design Republic stands for a new birth of life and style. At its foundation, it is a republic of life – life that creates meaning and understanding through its relationship to objects of habitation. Seeking to explore the relationship between people and the simple objects they use in life – a plate, a teacup, a chair; it is here where we discover the beauty of everyday life.

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Design Republic is also a republic of style – style that creates new ideologies in design, retail, and merchandising concepts embodying a distinctive aesthetic for contemporary China.

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It crosses traditional boundaries to merge old and new, traditional and modern, opulent and austere, to ultimately create a dynamic platform of design.

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Butterfly Loft Apartment by Tigg Coll Architects

The staircase in this west London house by Tigg Coll Architects has a glass balustrade and open treads to allow light to flood through from above (+ slideshow).

Butterfly Loft Apartment by Tigg Coll Architects

The three-storey maisonette in Kensington was completely overhauled by the architects, with the original staircase, floors and internal partitions removed.

Butterfly Loft Apartment by Tigg Coll Architects

The oak treads of the new staircase cantilever off an exposed brick wall.

Butterfly Loft Apartment by Tigg Coll Architects

A skylight is fitted above the stairwell in the sloping roof.

Butterfly Loft Apartment by Tigg Coll Architects

A double-sided wine rack is built into the wall between the kitchen and staircase.

Butterfly Loft Apartment by Tigg Coll Architects

We recently featured another London townhouse with a striking staircase – see it here.

Butterfly Loft Apartment by Tigg Coll Architects

See all our stories about staircases »

Butterfly Loft Apartment by Tigg Coll Architects

Photographs are by Andy Matthews.

Butterfly Loft Apartment by Tigg Coll Architects

Here’s some more information from Tigg Coll Architects:


Designed for a young client who wanted to convert his standard maisonette in Kensington, London, into a contemporary loft apartment for entertaining.

Butterfly Loft Apartment by Tigg Coll Architects

All the internal partitions, floors and existing staircase of this triplex apartment were removed, presenting a blank canvas of the existing structure.

Butterfly Loft Apartment by Tigg Coll Architects

The new staircase is cantilevered off an exposed brick clad wall imported from Denmark and runs the full height of the house, concealing the structural steelwork behind.

Butterfly Loft Apartment by Tigg Coll Architects

The oak-clad open treads and cantilevered glass balustrade allow light to flood down from the rooflight high above, as well as allowing light to filter through from both the front and rear windows.

Butterfly Loft Apartment by Tigg Coll Architects

The previously small living spaces are now open-plan with the kitchen at the heart, between the reception and mezzanine dining area.

Butterfly Loft Apartment by Tigg Coll Architects

The purposefully designed double-sided wine rack and openings in the staircase allow a separation of space yet also a connection, with glimpses through to the spaces beyond and above.

Butterfly Loft Apartment by Tigg Coll Architects

On the upper floor, the existing double butterfly roof was exposed and new ceilings installed to follow these lines, allowing ceiling heights throughout to be maximised and sculptural.

Butterfly Loft Apartment by Tigg Coll Architects

The new rooflight nestles in the roof pitch of the resultant space over the staircase.

Butterfly Loft Apartment by Tigg Coll Architects

Contract value: Approx £450,000
GIA: Approx. 1500 sqft

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Wakefield Street Townhouses by Piercy & Company

Wakefield Street Townhouses by Piercy and Company

These London townhouses by architects Piercy & Company have chunky banisters formed from thickly layered birch plywood.

Wakefield Street Townhouses by Piercy and Company

The stairs zigzag up from the basement floor to the second floor roof terraces of each of the three residences, which are located behind a listed wall within the conservation area of Bloomsbury.

Wakefield Street Townhouses by Piercy and Company

The two-storey-high facades of each house are constructed from a sandy-coloured brick that is lighter in colour than the brown and red brickwork of the surrounding historic buildings.

Wakefield Street Townhouses by Piercy and Company

The heights of the buildings intentionally line up with their neighbours, while window sills and lintels have been designed with matching proportions.

Wakefield Street Townhouses by Piercy and Company

Perforated steel louvers shade the windows and skylights bring daylight into each house from above.

Wakefield Street Townhouses by Piercy and Company

Other projects with interesting staircases include an empty tower and an Olympic MuseumSee more staircases on Dezeen »

Wakefield Street Townhouses by Piercy and Company

Photography is by Jack Hobhouse.

Here’s some more information from Piercy & Company:


Three contemporary townhouses in London’s Historic Bloomsbury

London, UK: Three contemporary townhouses have been completed in Bloomsbury, Central London. Designed by Piercy&Company for Great Marlborough Estates and located within the Bloomsbury Conservation Area, the townhouses marry contextual sensitivity with contemporary urban living.

Wakefield Street Townhouses by Piercy and Company

The townhouses are adjacent to a number of Grade II listed buildings, a Grade II* listed Historic Gardens and bounded on one side by a Grade II listed wall. The buildings’ design echoes the materials, proportions and forms of the surrounding conservation area.

Wakefield Street Townhouses by Piercy and Company

Heavily textured masonry and finely detailed stone cills, lintels and stringer courses create a contextually sensitive skin whilst the window proportions and generous floor to ceiling heights reflect those of the surrounding Georgian buildings. These fine grain details and proportional references interpret the existing language of the Bloomsbury Conservation Area into a contemporary idiom.

Wakefield Street Townhouses by Piercy and Company

Inside, the layout of the internal spaces is highly flexible. The houses can be configured as 2, 3 or 4 bedrooms. In addition to upper floor bedrooms, the ground floor can be a lounge + study, or bedroom + study, or two bedrooms to make it a 4 bed house. This spatial fluidity responds to contemporary conditions of urban living where household compositions are varied and family living arrangements change over time.

Wakefield Street Townhouses by Piercy and Company

The penetration of light down into the lower levels of the houses informs many aspects of the design; from the skylight playfully positioned above the top floor bath to the large corner windows and sliding glass doors which feature throughout. An open-plan kitchen and dining area at lower ground floor level leads onto a light-filled sunken courtyard which also provides private outdoor living and dining space beneath the historic listed wall.

Wakefield Street Townhouses by Piercy and Company

A key architectural statement in each townhouse is a bespoke staircase, handmade in birch and ash. The staircase is fully revealed with open landings and internal glass partitions, naturally lit from above, allowing light to penetrate from roof to basement. This open staircase is only made possible through sophisticated fire engineering, including the use of domestic sprinklers.

Wakefield Street Townhouses by Piercy and Company

Views over St Georges Gardens provide a green backdrop for many of the living/bedroom spaces. Careful alignment of laser cut shutters and louvres provides privacy to residents whilst preventing visitors to St George’s Gardens feeling overlooked.

Wakefield Street Townhouses by Piercy and Company

As Piercy&Company’s Stuart Piercy describes:
“The site presented many issues with a beautiful grade II * garden and listed buildings to all sides – so it was very sensitive with an extremely vocal residents group. The key was to introduce a finer grain to the facade interpreting motifs from the conservation area in a contemporary language, while on the inside the opposite is true – we wanted large volumes of flexible light filled engaging spaces. For me the project’s success is that the spaces feel light and generous while the houses sit very gently in the context of the 300 year old gardens.”

Wakefield Street Townhouses by Piercy and Company

Project Address 8, 9 and 10 Wakefield Street, London WC1N

Project Team Members
Client: Great Marlborough Estates
Architect: Piercy&Company
Project Manager: Paragon LLP
Structural Engineer: Pringuer-James Consulting Engineers
Mechanical and Electrical Engineers: Martin Design Associates
Main Contractor: Forcia Limited

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Maison Escalier by Moussafir Architectes

Steps connecting the gradually rising floors of this Paris house by Moussafir Architectes can be glimpsed through the cut-out shutters on its glazed facade (+ slideshow).

Step House by Moussafir Architectes

Located in Paris’ 6th arrondissement, the house has been fitted into the three original stone walls of the site’s previous building.

Step House by Moussafir Architectes

The steel structure comprises cantilevered floors supported by a central core that’s largely independent of the three outer walls.

Step House by Moussafir Architectes

The south facade is entirely glazed and fitted with electrically operated steel shutters.

Step House by Moussafir Architectes

With the exception of the bathroom, there are no partitions between the rooms.

Step House by Moussafir Architectes

Wooden stairs wrap around the core of the house and each level leading off from the stairs becomes its own room.

Step House by Moussafir Architectes

The central core, staircase, floors and ceilings are all clad in black locust wood. Concrete boxes have been fitted into the walls to provide built-in shelving.

Step House by Moussafir Architectes

We recently featured a house in Japan with a courtyard staircase that climbs over a roof – see it here.

Step House by Moussafir Architectes

See more stories about Moussafir Architectes »

Step House by Moussafir Architectes

See more stories about houses »

Step House by Moussafir Architectes

Photographs are by Hervé Abbadie.

Step House by Moussafir Architectes

Here’s more information from the architects:


Wooden window frames within old masonry walls and steel window frames by Forster within new steel structure; lacquered steel electrically operated shutters, iroko roof terrace, steel roof planters.

Step House by Moussafir Architectes

Architects: Jacques Moussafir with Alexis Duquennoy, project manager, and Na An.
Consultants: Jean-Marc Weill and Malishev Wilson Engineers (structural engineers)

Step House by Moussafir Architectes

Contractors: Microsol (deep foundations), Lisandre (structural work, plumbing, fittings), Général Métal (metal frame),

Step House by Moussafir Architectes

MGN (exterior door and windowframes), B2E (electricity), Tischlerei Bereuter (interior woodwork and panelling).

Step House by Moussafir Architectes

Maison Escalier (Step House)

Built on the site of an old house set between two buildings in the heart of a very well-preserved block in the 6th arrondissement of Paris, this house is designed as a tree-like structure delimited on three sides by the original walls.

Step House by Moussafir Architectes

Only the entirely glazed south façade belies the almost total reconstruction of the building and provides a glimpse of the volumetric complexity of its interior spaces.

Step House by Moussafir Architectes

Even more than that of a tree, the most effective metaphor for the project might be that of a Cyclopean stairway: the house is a stair whose core houses the wet rooms, whose stairwell is defined by the gables of the neighbouring buildings, and whose steps and landings form the various living spaces.

Step House by Moussafir Architectes

The fact that there was no need to partition the rooms (except the bathrooms) means that there is a sense of total spatial continuity from basement to roof terrace.

Step House by Moussafir Architectes

The structure, entirely of steel, is made up of cantilevered floors borne by the central core and partly dissociated from the three outer walls onto which have been grafted concrete boxes that act as built-in furniture.

Maison Escalier by Moussafir Architectes

The choice of materials reinforces the architectural design: the partitions of the central core, the floors and the ceilings are all clad in locust tree, whose colour and pattern contrast with the texture and whiteness of the outer walls.

Maison Escalier by Moussafir Architectes

Step House (Maison Escalier) – Paris – 2008-2011
Completed December 2011

Maison Escalier by Moussafir Architectes

Client: Eric de Rugy
Address: 22, rue Jacob, 75006 PARIS

Maison Escalier by Moussafir Architectes

Brief: house reconstruction
Budget: 850 000€ excl. VAT

Maison Escalier by Moussafir Architectes

Surface area: 153 sq.m. + 15 sq.m. roof terrace.

Step House by Moussafir Architectes

Materials: pile foundations, concrete basement liner, steel superstructure, wooden floors with built-in low temperature heating; ceilings and panelling laid on plasterboard; panelling. Ceilings and floors on upper levels made of locust tree boards by Admonter; floors on lower levels of resinous concrete by Ardex; sheet steel and stainless steel mesh guardrails by Jakob.

Step House by Moussafir Architectes

The Spiral by Marra + Yeh Architects

The Spiral by Marra + Yeh Architects

A spiralling concrete staircase winds up through this empty tower by Marra + Yeh Architects of Sydney and Malaysia.

The Spiral by Marra + Yeh Architects

Constructed beside a three-storey Malaysian house, the tower simply provides a stairwell to connect each of the building’s floors.

The Spiral by Marra + Yeh Architects

A series of small openings create concentrated rectangles of light along the walls, while more daylight filters in through a spiral of speckled perforations in the roof.

The Spiral by Marra + Yeh Architects

Swirls of white render cover the exterior walls.

The Spiral by Marra + Yeh Architects

Photography is by Brett Boardman.

The Spiral by Marra + Yeh Architects

Here’s a little more text from Marra + Yeh Architects:


The Spiral by Marra + Yeh Architects

Connecting three levels of a multi-generational home the spiral concerns both the poetic and the pragmatic.

The Spiral by Marra + Yeh Architects

The skill and delicate craft of traditional boat builders was enlisted to build the curving tapering form. The spiral contains the freedom of our movements, addressing the interaction of people with their environment, a vessel to enrich our daily rituals.

The Spiral by Marra + Yeh Architects

Location: Malaysia

National Olympic Committee House by Architects of Invention

National Olympic Committee House by Architects of Invention

This maple-veneered staircase twists and turns between the floors of an Olympic Museum in Georgia refurbished by UK and Georgia firm Architects of Invention.

National Olympic Committee House by Architects of Invention

The architects created openings in the interior walls of the four-storey building to connect the new staircase with exhibitions and other rooms on the upper levels.

National Olympic Committee House by Architects of Invention

A new reception desk was also added as part of the renovation, which features a large fissure that makes it look like it’s been sawn in two.

National Olympic Committee House by Architects of Invention

Other projects we’ve featured in Georgia include a knobbly observation tower and a new international airport.

National Olympic Committee House by Architects of Invention

You can also see more stories about staircases here.

National Olympic Committee House by Architects of Invention

Photography is by Nakanimamasakhlisi Photo Lab, Nika Mdivani and I. Kopocova.

National Olympic Committee House by Architects of Invention

The text below was written by Architects of Invention:


National Olympic Commettee House 
Tbilisi, Georgia 2011

This work represents the idea of dynamics in sport with the abstract compositions of the staircase and the reception table.

National Olympic Committee House by Architects of Invention

The first object you encounter is the introverted desk with its never-ending fissure, and then you meet the extroverted staircase – like the open path to Olympus, where the summit meets its own reflection, inferring that striving never ends, that there is no limit to human achievement.

National Olympic Committee House by Architects of Invention

The building was built at the end of the XIX century for a private investor and it was later used as the residence of one of the leaders of the Communist party.

National Olympic Committee House by Architects of Invention

Later it was renovated in the 1960′s for government purposes and remained untouched until this year.

National Olympic Committee House by Architects of Invention

The structure was reinforced at the basement level which allowed us to make significant openings in the walls of the upper stories and place the staircase so it shifted from one space to another thus penetrating the structure.

National Olympic Committee House by Architects of Invention

The staircase was constructed on a steel base with MDF panels and it was finished with maple veneer. The steps and the side railings were made from the same wood.

National Olympic Committee House by Architects of Invention

The staircase was completed in three months.

National Olympic Committee House by Architects of Invention

Project – Office Building Interior
Status – Completed

National Olympic Committee House by Architects of Invention

Location – 22 Machabeli str. Tbilisi, Georgia
Program – Olympic Museum, Geonoch Offices

National Olympic Committee House by Architects of Invention

Building Area – 3000m2
Budget – 1m USD

National Olympic Committee House by Architects of Invention

Credits: Niko Japaridze, Gogiko Sakvarelidze, Nika Maisuradze, Dato Tsanava, Viliana Guliashvili, Ivane Ksnelashvili, David Dolidze, Soso Eliava, Devi Kituashvili PM, Eka Japaridze

House in Aoto by High Land Design

House in Aoto by High Land Design

Japanese architect Masayoshi Takahashi of High Land Design has completed a house in Tokyo with a squared spiral staircase at its centre.

House in Aoto by High Land Design

Constructed from concrete beside a main road, the three-storey House in Aoto has a black-painted facade that screens a terrace on the rooftop.

House in Aoto by High Land Design

Rectangular windows pierce the exterior in a seemingly random arrangement to let light filter into workrooms on the ground floor, living rooms on the first floor and three bedrooms on the top floor.

House in Aoto by High Land Design

Softwood boards cover the floors of each room as well as the risers and treads of the faceted staircase, while walls and ceilings are painted white throughout.

House in Aoto by High Land Design

Other Japanese houses with focal staircases include one behind slanted walls and peepholes, plus another that spirals around a wall.

House in Aoto by High Land Design

Photography is by Toshiyuki Yano.

House in Aoto by High Land Design

Here’s some more text from Masayoshi Takahashi:


This house is located in a heavily trafficked road on the north side.

House in Aoto by High Land Design

We thought that is important to be connected the scene of life continuously while moved up and down about this project.

House in Aoto by High Land Design

We placed each space like spiral around the stairs. So that it is possible to move around each space without feeling the difficulty moving up and down.

House in Aoto by High Land Design

The first floor is garage and work spaces, the second floor is a living and dining space on sunny south side, the third floor is a private room and master bedroom.

House in Aoto by High Land Design

And we have placed closed spaces (such as toilet ,storage, sanitary) on the north side. So we were able to get a quiet and sunny living environment.

House in Aoto by High Land Design

Location: Katsushika Tokyo
Architects: Masayoshi Takahashi/High Land Design
Structural engineers: A.S.Associates

House in Aoto by High Land Design

Structure: Reinforced concrete
Frame: 3stories+Roof Teracce

House in Aoto by High Land Design

Site area: 78.81m2
Built area: 50.21m2

House in Aoto by High Land Design

Total floor area: 144.50m2
Completion date:2011.12