It’s called Stairway House, Nendo‘s latest project, which consists of a house designed around a monumental staircase that penetrates the building and runs the entire three floors, up to the roof. 

Stairway House is located in a quiet residential area of Tokyo, where thanks to its geometric and minimalist shape it stands out from the surrounding houses and was designed to accommodate two families, an older one on the ground floor and a younger one with small children on the two upper floors. 

To get to the entrance, from the street you have to enter a small courtyard from which a huge staircase starts, which crosses the main facade, completely glazed, right in the middle. This choice, combined with a skylight placed on the roof, allows you to make the most of natural light and eliminate the boundary between inside and outside. 

Through the staircase you can reach the ground floor which houses the kitchen, living room, dining room, bedroom, study room, bathroom, toilet and storage room. Continuing, instead, up the steps you reach the upper floors which in turn house a large open plan kitchen, a living room and dining room, two bedrooms, a bathroom, a study room and several closets. 

In addition to connecting the rooms, the Stairway House staircase houses the rooms that require the most privacy, such as bathrooms and closets. 

In addition, Nendo has also thought of an ingenious way, through a series of special vases, to transform the staircase into a greenhouse, creating a continuity between the greenery in the garden and the spaces of the house.