London studio RA Tasks has reconfigured and refurbished the home of fashion designer Roksanda Ilincic, incorporating a blue steel staircase in the centre created to appear “like a sculpture in a gallery” .
Fin Home was developed by RA Projects for Roksanda Ilincic and her husband Philip Bueno de Mesquita, a layout entrepreneur who founded trainer brand Acupuncture in the 1990s.
The couple purchased the three-storey house in central London off-strategy from a developer, but desired to upgrade the surfaces and reconfigure the layout – specifically the 195-square-metre ground floor, which previously had a bedroom and en-suite bathroom on one side, and a central staircase enclosed in masonry.
All internal walls had been removed to produce 1 free of charge-flowing space, and the staircase was enclosed in a blue steel fin-like framework.
“The approach was to open up the floor and make the stairs a central sculptural component,” explained architect Rashid Ali.
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“The stairs sit in between the kitchen and dining spot on 1 side and the living space on the other side, supplying a division, but with a degree of permeability,” he told Dezeen. “It was critical to be capable to move all around them, like a sculpture in a gallery.”
The blue was taken from a tone of material by Danish brand Kvadrat, which has also informed by the aesthetic of Ilincic’s styles, known for their use of daring colour. Ilincic even utilised the staircase as a backdrop for pictures showcasing her Resort 2016 assortment.
“We have been exploring the notion of lining some walls with Kvadrat material, and we determined to use the colour of one of these fabrics for the stairs. We spray-painted small steel samples till we had the very best match,” said Ali.
Ali previously worked with Ilincic when he was an architect at Adjaye Associates, where he aided design and style her former residence, Lost Home. Adjaye Associates also recently made Ilincic’s first London shop, incorporating geometric aspects from her designs into the interior.
On the basement level, the home has a master bedroom and bathroom, and a separate space employed for dressing and storing clothes. A lightwell brings daylight down into the bedroom and doubles as a patio, and the dressing room receives light from 4 glass rectangles set into the floor of the kitchen region above.
On the best level, there are two much more bedrooms and yet another bathroom. The fin-like framework of the blue staircase extends up to the first floor to visually link it with the ground floor, and also has shelves developed into one side on the ground floor, close to a study spot, to give area for books.
To match the staircase into the present opening of the earlier stair, Ali had to model the design in 3D and have sections prefabricated, which were then positioned and welded in a tight area onsite.
“It was very challenging to insert a new design into the present opening and meet constructing regulations,” he said.
“It was also incredibly challenging to spray paint, due to the fact of the spatial constraints, and the fact that it was formed from so many distinct fragments and aspects.”
To reflect light from the south-facing terrace at the home’s rear and create a neutral backdrop to emphasise the blue of the stairs, the architects utilized Altro Flexiflow resin flooring during the residence.
The self-smoothing materials has a flexible, stretchy quality, similar to vinyl flooring, and can be laid more than cracked subfloors with no fractures exhibiting by means of on the surface.
Strip lights have been extra to the ceiling of the ground floor to accentuate the length of the space.
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“It was actually about formally working with and acknowledging the planes that form this room, and the linear good quality of this area,” said Ali.
The bathrooms had been conceived as darker cave-like rooms, in contrast to the light, open-strategy ground floor, and feature walls and floors finished in unglazed tiles by Dutch manufacturer Mosa.
The reconfiguration and refurbishment of Ilincic’s property took 14 months to complete.
Other properties with colourful staircases contain a Japanese property with red spiral stairs and an Australian home with a suspended yellow staircase that joins up with the kitchen island beneath it.
Photography is by Lyndon Douglas.
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Ground floor program 
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