Split House

A dilapidated lane house, left with little more than its shell in an old artistic quarter, was rebuilt as three separate apartments. The China-based design team kept the split-level section typical of these houses, where a long front room and a smaller room half a level above are linked by a winding stair.

The decaying timber stair was replaced by a continuous metal one that links the three levels and holds the two rooms of each floor in place. Bathrooms sit next to the stair behind sandblasted glass, and a clerestory skylight above brings light into the darkest middle part of the house.

Decorative additions of the past decades were stripped away and large openings cut in the front. The house is painted black so that it almost disappears, leaving the shared stair, once the social heart of these houses, as the main experience.