Roundups

Our latest lookbook collects eight homes that feature split-level living areas, from a humble apartment in Mexico to a vast brutalist-style house in Bali.

Split-level areas are often seen in residential homes, where architects separate different spaces using short flights of steps to make interiors feel expansive and interesting, whatever their size.
Listed below are eight examples of the technique from around the world.
This is the latest in our lookbooks series, which provides visual inspiration from Dezeen’s archive. For more inspiration see previous lookbooks featuring homes with broken-plan layouts, atriums and sliding doors.
Photo by Rasmus NorlanderHaus am Hang, Germany, by AMUNT

Designed by German architecture office AMUNT, this cross-laminated timber house on a hillside in the Black Forest is organised to maximise internal sunlight.
The ground floor is split into three levels, with an entrance space on the top level, a kitchen and dining space on the middle level, and a lounge tucked into the lowest area.
Find out more about Haus am Hang ›
Photo by Tommaso RivaA Brutalist Tropical Home, Indonesia, by Patisandhika and Daniel Mitchell
The 512-square-metre A Brutalist Tropical Home in Bali, by architect Patisandhika Sidarta and designer Daniel Mitchell, has a double-height living room flanked by split levels that were modelled on Ray Kappe’s modernist Kappe Residence in Los Angeles.
“To be able to see spaces from angles that you could not in a conventional house with walls gives a completely different sense of space and feeling,” Mitchell said.
The multi-level layout displays books, records and a speaker system and leads down into an open-plan kitchen/dining area.
Find out more about A Brutalist Tropical Home ›
Photo by Fabian MartinezCasa Tres Árboles, Mexico, by Direccion
Mexican studio Direccion replaced walls with split levelling to make the social spaces of this weekend retreat in Valle de Bravo feel more connected in a renovation project.
The black microcement floor of the double-height entrance hall – itself sunken from the street – gives way to soothing wooden floorboards via a single step down into the lounge, dining and kitchen space.
Find out more about Casa Tres Árboles ›
Photo by Gilbert McCarragherFrame House, UK, by Bureau de Change
The ground floor of Frame House cascades down terrazzo steps, from the kitchen at the front of the home to a dining area and onto the lounge at the rear.
London studio Bureau de Change aimed to “create a coherent journey through all spaces” in its renovation and extension of the Victorian terraced home in south London.
Find out more about Frame House ›
Photo by Julian WeyerVilla E, Denmark, by CF Møller
This family home in Aarhus designed by CF Møller Architects sits on a sloping site, so it was divided into four distinct blocks separated by short flights of steps.
A kitchen and dining room leads onto a sitting room, which in turn is adjacent to the utility areas, hobby room and garage, all connected by the same herringbone oak flooring.
“The concept of dividing the building into ‘four small houses’ that could be moved between each other offered the solution and at the same time divided the villa into different family and living zones,” said the studio.
Find out more about Villa E ›
Photo by Shinkenchiku ShaHouse in Takatsuki, Japan, by Tato Architects
Tato Architects’s House in Takatsuki takes the concept of split levels to the extreme. The three-storey Japanese home is spread across 16 different floors that residents traverse via wooden blocks, shelves and other pieces of furniture instead of staircases.
“The idea is to create a sense of expansion inside a small house, so that you would find yourself on top of a rooftop in one moment, and tucked beneath a floor in another,” explained studio founder Yo Shimada.
Find out more about House in Takatsuki ›
Photo by Taran WilkhuKnightsbridge mews house, UK, by Echlin
Three simple steps divide the living room from the kitchen and dining area in this west London mews house that was remodelled by local firm Echlin into a broken-plan layout.
A generously sized, built-in L-shaped sofa helps to demarcate the separation, while a low wall that continues along one side of the sitting area from the kitchen floor helps to emphasise that sunken feeling.
Find out more about this Knightsbridge mews house ›
Photo by César BéjarDomus Peepem, Mexico, by Kiltro Polaris, WEWI, and JC Arquitectura
Apartments inside this block, designed by Kiltro Polaris, WEWI, and JC Arquitectura and located in a traditionally working-class area of Cancún, have a compact layout that sees the kitchen, living and dining area separated from the sleeping area by a tall wooden step.
The step stands out as a softer element among the polished concrete finishes of the walls and floors.
Find out more about Domus Peepem ›
This is the latest in our lookbooks series, which provides visual inspiration from Dezeen’s archive. For more inspiration see previous lookbooks featuring homes with broken-plan layouts, atriums and sliding doors.

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Including tight living areas, kitchens wedged into corridors and interiors in skinny Japanese houses, this lookbook features 10 homes that make clever use of narrow spaces.

Projects on constricted urban sites or working within historical buildings often must contend with long-and-narrow interior layouts.
Here are 10 examples of interiors where narrow spaces have been utilised to their full potential thanks to intelligent design.
This is the latest in our lookbooks series, which provides visual inspiration from Dezeen’s archive. For more inspiration see previous lookbooks featuring mezzanine bedrooms, creative built-in furniture and homes that make a highlight of their corridors.
Photo by Sobajima, Toshihiro1.8m Width House, Japan, by YUUA Architects & Associates

As its name suggests, the rooms in this house in central Tokyo are just 1.8 metres wide, so Japanese studio YUUA Architects & Associates had to plan the interior with meticulous care.
They used split-level floors to create natural partitions between different spaces, with a kitchen and dining area lined up along a single wall, while a dark colour scheme is intended to provide “a sense of depth”.
Find out more about 1.8m Width House ›
Photo by by Mariela ApollonioHorta Nord townhouse, Spain, by DG Arquitecto Valencia
DG Arquitecto Valencia sneaked a kitchen into a passageway in this Valencian townhouse as part of a renovation project for a young family.
White floor tiles and downlighting hanging from the high ceiling help the space maintain a sense of generous scale despite the narrow proportions.
Find out more about this Horta Nord townhouse ›
Photo by Colin Miller196 Orchard apartment, USA, by Alex P White
American designer Alex P White created a model unit for a high-end condominium building in Manhattan’s Lower East Side characterised by exposed calming concrete ceilings, grey plaster walls and neutral-toned decor.
In the narrow living room, a mix of shapes and textures combine with built-in furniture to provide added visual depth, from a series of ivory wall hangings by Los Angeles artist Mary Little to a large walnut shelving unit designed by White and a cardboard chair by Frank Gehry.
Find out more about this 196 Orchard apartment ›
Photography is by Lorenzo ZandriNotting Hill maisonette, UK, by Francesco Pierazzi Architects
A petite plywood study space was nestled into a hallway in this London maisonette overhauled by Francesco Pierazzi Architects.
To emphasise the home’s sense of height, the studio placed floor-to-ceiling doorways in all of its narrower rooms and left the brick shell exposed, offset by dark flooring.
Find out more about this Notting Hill maisonette ›
Photo by Texture on TextureSeochon micro guesthouse, South Korea, by Z_Lab
Z_Lab’s serene interiors for this tiny guesthouse tucked down an alleyway in northern Seoul occupy a former traditional Korean home, otherwise known as a hanok.
In the main space, long and rectilinear, different functions are lined up from a cosy reading area on a timber bench to a lengthy walnut table for enjoying tea that sits directly beside a sunken water bath.
Find out more about this Seochan micro guesthouse ›
Photo by Eric PetschekWest Chelsea Apartment, USA, by BoND
This long and narrow apartment in New York’s Chelsea neighbourhood was overhauled by architecture studio BoND, which replaced partition walls with glass doors to allow more light to reach the middle section while also “celebrating the apartment’s elongated proportions and maximising the illusion of depth”.
All utilities, including kitchen and bathroom fixtures, were moved to one wall to leave the other free for displaying art, while the direction of the floorboards and linear lighting fixtures help to emphasise the length of the interior.
Find out more about West Chelsea Apartment ›
Photo by Itay BenitBauhaus Tel Aviv apartment, Israel, by Amir Navon and Maayan Zusman
A “safe room” was turned into a snug spare bedroom as part of a refurbishment of this Tel Aviv apartment by architect Amir Navon and interior designer Maayan Zusman, who worked alongside graduates Dana Sagive and Naama Tison Vilotsky.
To compensate for a lack of width a light-toned oak herringbone floor was paired with pale colours, while two wooden plates with holes pierced in them to support brass hooks are a space-saving storage solution.
Find out more about this Bauhaus Tel Aviv apartment ›
Photo by by Koji Fujii Nacasa and PartnersLove2 House, Japan, by Takeshi Hosaka
This Tokyo micro home designed by architect Takeshi Hosaka for himself and his wife gathers household amenities into a linear floorplan spanning just 19 square metres.
Borrowing principles from the architecture of villas in ancient Roman villas, Hosaka divided up spaces for sleeping, bathing, eating and study using seven partitions that extend out from the concrete walls.
Find out more about Love2 House ›
Photo by Ståle EriksenBirch and Clay Refugio, UK, by Rise Design Studio
By cutting shelving into one wall, retaining a generous window sill and subtly overlapping the chunky sink and bathtub, Rise Design Studio was able to make the most of limited lateral space in this bathroom.
The room’s proportions were chosen to match an adjacent lightwell in the remodelled London flat, while the dark blue tadelakt walls and floor contrast with a birch plywood ceiling to convey an impression of solidity.
Find out more about Birch and Clay Refugio ›

La Odette, Spain, by CRÜ
Architecture studio CRÜ was tasked with transforming this Barcelona apartment from a cramped three-bedroom home into a spacious two-bed while optimising the use of space.
In the kitchen-living area, it removed the partition walls to create an open-plan space, with large terracotta floor tiles and white-painted brick walls.
Find out more about La Odette ›
This is the latest in our lookbooks series, which provides visual inspiration from Dezeen’s archive. For more inspiration see previous lookbooks featuring mezzanine bedrooms, creative built-in furniture and homes that make a highlight of their corridors.

Read more: More