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      Ten home interiors animated by sculptural winding staircases

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      Sculpture-like concrete steps and a curving stair suspended above ground feature in this lookbook, which spotlights ten residential interiors with standout spiral or helical staircases.

      Winding stairways are found in two styles known as spiral or helical stairs. Though they appear similar and both make use of tapered treads, spiral staircases are arranged around a central column, while helical staircases encircle voids.
      Spiral staircases are also typically round in shape and used in interiors with limited space because they require less space than traditional linear stairs.
      Meanwhile, helical stairs require a larger floor area and are therefore more suitable when making a staircase the focal point of a room. These systems commonly have wider elliptical shapes than the spiral versions.
      This is the latest in our lookbooks series, which provides visual inspiration from Dezeen’s archive. For more inspiration see previous lookbooks showcasing bedrooms with clever storage solutions, homes with decorative vaulted ceilings and offices with wooden bleachers.

      Photo is by Cristiano BauceLoft Diego, Brazil, by Arquitetura Nacional
      Arquitetura Nacional suspended this sculptural black staircase from the upper floor of an apartment in Porto Alegre so that its base doesn’t touch the floor.
      Crafted from folded steel and finished with plastic covering, the helicoidal structure helped the studio to transform the duplex into a more “fluid space”.
      Find out more about Loft Diego ›
      Photo is by Olmo PeetersRiverside Tower apartment, Belgium, by Studio Okami Architecten
      While renovating a duplex apartment in the brutalist Riverside Tower in Antwerp, Studio Okami Architecten introduced a pastel blue staircase between its two levels.
      The position and form of the spiralling stair were chosen to help maximise floor space in the dwelling, while its bright finish creates a striking contrast to the exposed concrete behind it.
      Find out more about Riverside Tower ›
      Photo is by Leonardo FinottiCasa Thomé Beira da Silva, Brazil, by Marcos Bertoldi Arquitetos
      Wooden panels line this helical staircase, which Marcos Bertoldi Arquitetos created as a sculptural centrepiece for the double-height living room at Casa Thomé Beira in the south of Brazil.
      Visible from the outside of the home, the staircase leads up to a series of bedrooms and is complemented by a wooden material palette that runs throughout.
      Find out more about Casa Thomé Beira da Silva ›

      Haus JJ, Germany, by NOWlab
      Colourful flooring and a rope balustrade animate this compact spiral staircase, which NOWlab designed to save valuable floor space in a small two-storey apartment in Berlin.
      Enclosed by walls at the centre of the dwelling, the structure has slender wooden treads that fan out from a central column and complement the surrounding herringbone floors.
      Find out more about Haus JJ ›
      Photo is by Juan SolanoCasa Blanca, Peru, by Martin Dulanto
      This self-supporting, fluorescent orange staircase twists up through the centre of the Casa Blanca residence in Lima to connect all three of its levels.
      Made from reinforced concrete with a concealed iron core, it is designed by Martin Dulanto Sangalli as the focal point of the house that has an otherwise muted colour scheme.
      Find out more about Casa Blanca ›
      Photo is by Mia MortensenTommy Rand’s House, Denmark, by Tommy Rand
      More than 600 pieces of CNC-cut plywood were glued together by hand to build this spiral staircase, located in the house that architect Tommy Rand designed for his family in Denmark.
      Visible from the exterior of the dwelling, the curved form has been placed against a concrete backdrop that draws attention to the intricacy of its design and adds warmth to the home.
      Find out more about Tommy Rand’s House ›
      Photo is by Ben HoskingOgimachi House, Japan, by Tomoaki Uno Architects
      A helical staircase with petal-shaped wooden treads breaks up the gridded layout of this skylit house in Japan.
      Resembling a flower when viewed from above, its form helps to save floor space while also providing access to four private rooms on the top floor.
      Find out more about Ogimachi House ›
      Photo is by Tim Van de VeldeHouse Dede, Belgium, by OYO Architects
      This wood-lined staircase sits at the heart of the cross-shaped plan of House Dede, which OYO Architects completed on the site of an old barn in Drongen.
      Winding upwards through a circular hole that punctures a board-marked concrete ceiling, it forms a sculptural yet functional centrepiece for the house.
      Find out more about House Dede ›

      Sacha, France, by SABO Project
      Thin slats of plywood and a bespoke baby gate that can be easily removed are key features of this cylindrical staircase, which is located in a refurbished apartment in Paris.
      It was designed as part of a quirky yet “child-proof” renovation project that was carried out by SABO Project for a young couple expecting their first child.
      Find out more about Sacha ›
      Photo is by Kazunori FujimotoHouse in Akitsu, Japan, by Kazunori Fujimoto
      This guardless staircase juxtaposes the cubic concrete forms of the House in Akitsu, which overlooks a seaside spot near the city of Higashihiroshima.
      The twisting form, which links the home’s bedrooms and living spaces, was engineered to negate the need for a central pillar and in turn, offers a sculptural look.
      Find out more about House in Akitsu ›
      This is the latest in our series of lookbooks providing curated visual inspiration from Dezeen’s image archive. For more inspiration see previous lookbooks showcasing bedrooms with clever storage solutions, homes with decorative vaulted ceilings and offices with wooden bleachers.

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      Dezeen's top 10 staircases of 2021

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      We continue our review of 2021 with a roundup highlighting the top 10 staircases featured on Dezeen this year, including a stair informed by skate bowls and one designed by Kengo Kuma. Photo is by Mia Mortensen Self build, Denmark, by Tommy Rand Located on the outskirts of Aarhus, this self-build house by Tommy Rand features a […] More

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      Kelly Wearstler creates sculptural oak staircase for hotel in Austin

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      Interior designer Kelly Wearstler included eye-catching details such as vintage rugs and a white oak staircase that doubles as a ceramics display in her design for the Austin Proper Hotel and Residences.Built in 2019 by New York firm Handel Architects, the 32-storey hotel and apartments managed by McGuire Moorman Hospitality is located in Downtown Austin, Texas.
      Los Angeles-based Wearstler, who will be on the interiors panel as a Dezeen Awards 2021 judge, created the aesthetic for the 244 rooms and 99 “branded residences.”

      Panels of Shou Sugi Ban cypress clad the walls

      Her interior design for the hotel revolves around local art and textiles, with some eclectic vintage elements thrown in.
      A focal point is a sculptural staircase made of white oak wood with stepped balustrades.

      Vintage rugs are draped over the wooden stairs
      An interesting backdrop has been created by showcasing the underside of the staircase steps, while a ziggurat of plinths below is used to display a range of glazed earthenware pots and vases.
      Custom panelling along the walls of the hotel is made from cypress wood, charred using the traditional Japanese technique of Shou Sugi Ban to create a tiger-striped effect.

      Patterned tiles and rugs feature in the Peacock restaurant
      Mismatched vintage rugs run up the stairs, and a mix of chairs and armchairs upholstered in patterned fabric are scattered around the lobby.
      Tiles by Austin ceramicist Rick Van Dyke appear as inlays on furniture such as cabinets, and fibre artwork by local artist Magda Sayeg, known for her yarn bombing installations, are hung in the bedrooms alongside antique mirrors.

      Wine racks and botanical wallpaper decorate the restaurant
      The fifth floor features a pool deck clad with locally quarried travertine, where Mexican restaurant La Piscina serves small-batch tequila.
      There are three other eateries in Austin Proper Hotel and Residences including Peacock, which serves Mediterranean food against a backdrop of parquet floors covered in more vintage rugs and walls covered in Portuguese-style tiles.
      A private dining area, screened off by walls made of full wine racks, features botanical wallpaper.

      Pastel tiles decorate the Mockingbird cafe
      The interior of The Mockingbird, a coffee shop that serves Greek frozen yoghurt, was decked out in more colourful tiles by Wreastler.
      Small square tiles cover the walls and form a pattern of powder blue, seafoam green, inky navy blue and pale burnt orange colours.

      The bar has a flocked wallpaper ceiling
      Austin Proper Hotel and Residences also has a drinking establishment called Goldie’s Sunken Bar, which has a cobalt blue-painted bar, low stuffed armchairs and a high ceiling covered in opulent wallpaper.
      All over the hotel, walls are hug with art and niches are filled with ceramics. Pot plants filled with hardy desert species add splashes of greenery.

      Pot plants and mismatched furniture
      The 99 apartments attached to the hotel also have interiors designed by Kelly Wearstler. Their occupants have access to the hotel’s amenities as well as a private pool, along with dog grooming and concierge services.
      Kelly Wearstler is an interior designer based on America’s west coast. Recent collaborations for the same hotel franchise include the San Francisco Proper and the Santa Monica Proper.
      Photography is by The Ingalls.

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      Sky-blue cafe in Buffalo features “Alice in Wonderland” staircase

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      Canadian design duo Julia Jamrozik and Coryn Kempster have created a playful all-blue cafe in a century-old house in Buffalo, New York, with an optical illusion staircase.Named Tipico Coffee, the cafe’s identity was formed with the intention of designing a space that encourages social interactions and supports local craftsmanship.

      The cafe’s main bar is grafted from reclaimed furniture
      Reclaimed furniture and lighting made from construction-site string lights feature alongside an oversized staircase to nowhere which forms amphitheatre-style seating.
      The cafe’s main bar is made from ten reclaimed wooden tables sourced from classified advertisements website Craigslist.

      The main bar encourages social interactions

      The tables are grafted together and painted in sky-blue, forming a unified bar which runs along one wall of the cafe.
      “The process of designing the cafe really started with the idea of the social infrastructure of the grafted bar,” Jamrozik and Kempster told Dezeen.

      Drinks on ice are displayed between the bar’s table-tops
      The open bar has clusters of swivelling stools arranged around blue table-tops that jut out of the bar’s customer side, allowing easy socialising between customers and staff.
      “The different shapes of the tables come together to create opportunities for conversations,” continued the designers.
      “This is augmented with the use of swivelling bar stools that allow patrons the ability to turn their bodies to orient themselves to a new connection.”

      Swivelling stools encourage random encounters between customers and staff

      BLUE Architecture Studio adds U-shaped glass box to Shanghai coffee shop

      Groups of circular olive-green garden tables and chairs, as well as built-in blue benches, make up two intimate seating areas behind each side of the bar, which are separated by a wall.
      The tables and chairs used are purposefully outdoor furniture. This means that the seating can be moved onto an exterior patio in the summer months.

      Tipico’s atmosphere is a mix of indoors and outdoors
      Various scattered potted plants blend green and blue furniture together and continue the theme of bringing the outdoors inside.
      Jamrozik and Kempster explained their intentions for using sky-blue as the cafe’s dominant colour.

      Ménard Dworkind creates retro coffee bar in downtown Montreal

      “We wanted to use a vibrant colour to visually tie together the bar and benches to create continuity in the space and give visual emphasis to the bar as the main design gesture.”
      “We chose blue to both complement the olive green furniture and plants, but also to create moments of contrast with the bespoke yellow lights,” they continued.

      Potted plants are scattered around the space
      The bespoke lights designed for the cafe are composed of construction-site string lights, wound around sections of aluminium stock tubes. They hang above the bar and the seating areas.
      “We wanted to transform the string lights, while still making it clear what the source product was,” explained the designers.

      Lighting made from construction-site string lights
      Metal pegboard is another off-the-shelf material used in the space, making up a menu board behind the bar, a merchandise display board and a community message board.
      The bottom of the main bar and built-in-benches was also lined with wooden pegboard in order to “give them both a visual texture, taking advantage of the acoustic properties of the perforations,” said Jamrozik and Kempster

      A merchandise display board made from metal pegboard
      A sense of the building’s historic charm remains in the existing fireplace that is preserved, which is painted in a strip of the same sky-blue paint as the main bar.
      An over-scaled stairwell acts as an additional, cosy seating area fit for a couple of customers at a time.

      The building’s original fireplace and its playful stairwell
      Sealed off by a mirror and leading to nowhere, the stairwell is intended as an “Alice in Wonderland moment,” enhancing the cafe’s playfulness.
      “The stairway’s oversized steps effectively shrink the visitor and act as seats while the mirrored ceiling gives the impression that the space continues up,” explained Jamrozik and Kempster.
      “We imagine people will be drawn to the curious space and hope that they enjoy the tongue-in-cheek reference that plays on the domestic history of the original building,” continued the designers.

      Sealed off by a mirror, the stairwell is an optical illusion
      Jamrozik and Kempster note the importance of playful design in their work, which they believe connects people in public spaces.
      “We use the language of play to create social infrastructures: physical prompts which encourage contact between strangers.”
      “We believe that questioning the way people use and occupy space and their relationship to one another through playful encounters has enormous potential to speak across generations and cultural differences,” they continued.

      The importance of play is an influence in Jamrozik and Kempster’s design work
      Designers everywhere are acknowledging the importance of designing public spaces to maximise social interactions. In Montreal, Ménard Dworkind has created a cafe with a central standing bar, while Central Saint Martins graduates have created blocky outdoor furniture for a public square in Croydon, London.
      Julia Jamrozik and Coryn Kempster have collaborated on design projects since 2003. Their varied work spans temporary installations and permanent interior and architectural commissions.
      Photography is by Sara Schmidle.
      Project credits: 
      Architecture team: Abstract Architecture PC

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      Echlin uses broken-plan layout to create spacious interiors within London mews house

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      A nearly six-metre-high green wall and a basement floor with a walk-on skylight are among the additions made by design and development firm Echlin to this remodelled mews house in Knightsbridge.The resulting design is described by the local firm as a “reinterpretation” of a classic London mews house, with plenty of useable and flexible space, an abundance of natural light and a strong connection to nature.

      The ground floor living space, top image, is separated from the dining area via an open shelving system, above
      Located on a quiet mews in easy reach of Hyde Park, the 225-square-metre family home is arranged across three floors and connected by a helical oak staircase, which was handmade in East Sussex.
      Entered through an oversized bronze door, the ground floor features an entrance hall cast in grey Pietra marble. This is separated from a generous living space, dining area and study via a sliding partition wall.

      The basement level features a sunken seating area and a kitchen

      The newly created basement level accommodates a large, split-level kitchen and living area while the first floor is occupied by three bedrooms, each with its own en-suite bathroom.
      A 5.5-metre-high living wall stretches between the lower ground and ground floors.

      The ground floor dining area features banquette seating
      Each floor follows a “broken-plan” layout, in which built-in furniture and level changes help to loosely demarcate different areas.
      “The vision was to transform a small mews with compromised rooms into a contemporary home with a great feeling of space,” explained Steve Clinch, Head Architect at Echlin. “This has been achieved by opening up the plan and providing views into other spaces, allowing the full width and length of the house to be experienced.”

      The ground floor also accommodates a small study
      Wide, sliding and pocket doors create views through the different spaces, as does bespoke joinery such as the open shelving that divides the dining, study and living areas on the first floor.
      On the lower ground floor, which was added in by the firm, a sunken seating area is located beyond the kitchen and dining area. The level change is intended to create a visual separation while allowing the spaces to remain connected to each other.

      The kitchen is made from walnut wood
      The walnut kitchen has been designed by Echlin so that all utilities can be concealed behind pivoting pocket doors when the owners are entertaining.
      A walk-on skylight on the ground floor terrace is located directly above the sunken seating area to maximise the amount of daylight in the basement. This is also helped by the fully-retractable, floor-to-ceiling glass door that leads out onto a small terrace and frames the view of the green wall.

      The basement’s ceiling is a walk-on skylight
      Three bedrooms are located on the first floor, where pitched ceilings create a feeling of spaciousness while skylights ensure the spaces get plenty of daylight.The sliding doors in the master bedroom create a visual connection all the way through from the dressing area into the en-suite.

      Sliding doors lead into the master bathroom
      Much of the furniture in the house is designed by Echlin and made in collaboration with a network of skilled craftsmen. Bespoke pieces include the pale timber table on the lower ground floor, which was handmade in Brighton, while the sofas on the lower ground and ground floors come from Oxfordshire.
      According to the studio, the home’s “sense of calm and tranquillity” was created through the use of natural materials, organic textures and a gentle colour palette informed by the nearby park. Meanwhile, the use of metallic surfaces and heritage colours nod to the home’s historic location.

      Ten mews houses that take advantage of London’s backstreets

      “The current climate has placed an even greater emphasis of the importance of how our homes are designed, how we use them and its impact on our moods,” said Sam McNally, who co-founded Echlin in 2011 with Mark O’Callaghan.
      “We recognise that mood, wellbeing and happiness are all shaped by what surrounds us and we are committed to making these spaces as stylish but also as user-friendly as we can.”

      A helical staircase connects the three floors
      In a thought piece written for Dezeen last year, design writer and TV presenter Michelle Ogundehin outlined 11 ways in which the pandemic will impact the home.
      As well as predicting a return to practical kitchens and more intimate room layouts, she believes there will be a desire for more human-centric homes, where natural materials are used to benefit the occupier’s wellbeing.
      Photography is by Taran Wilkhu.

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