Dynamic Staircases Encourage Movement in This Tech Office

2023 Best of Year Winner for Commercial Staircase

“Movement” was the design concept for this 16-floor tech workspace in Cambridge, Massachusetts, a notion exemplified via a series of dynamic feature staircases that encourage physicality and interaction while expressing and celebrating the flow of foot traffic between levels. Designed by Utile and Merge Architects, connecting three of the floors is an asymmetrically stacked ribbon of steel, its ash balustrade morphing into banquette seating at the base. The swooping form exerts a gravitational pull, inviting staffers to look over and enjoy views of the activity. Another stair with a geometric switchback profile makes a statement in bold blue, its translucent Panelite sidewall filtering the motion of ascent and descent through to the opposite side.

UTILE: MIMI LOVE; CHANTEL KOCHER; CLAUDIA PORRAS; JACK CORRIVEAU; PETRA JAROLIMOVA.

MERGE ARCHITECTS: ELIZABETH WHITAKER; DIANA TOMOVA; CHRIS JOHNSON.

A Winding, Metal Staircase Nods to Dyson’s Legacy at the Brand’s Singapore Office

2022 Best of Year Winner for Extra Large Corporate Office

The century-old St James Power Station was Singapore’s first municipal electrical provider. Its legacy of innovation continues into a new era now that Dyson has reinvented the national monument into dramatic global headquarters by M Moser Associates. At its heart is the stunning four-story former Turbine Hall. Inspired by the quadrangles of academic campuses, the 140,000-square-foot space serves as a circulation hub connecting all departments, an inner employee sanctum embracing nature, and a community space. Concrete flooring and blackened metal link to the past, while technical materials like polycarbonate, metal mesh, and mirrored cladding are more of the moment. A focal metal staircase references both the existing complex and Dyson’s heritage in the form of a turbine that also resembles the silhouette of a drill bit.

M Moser Associates: kahn yoon; addy walcott; kevin hubbard; veronica vijayanti; bhavna singhal; anisha kumar; simon paddison; sung lee; ivan mak; andrea carrion; julia tan; amanda tan; anthony ong; samuel tsang.

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Residential Designs Around the World With Stunning Silhouettes

Today’s best residential designs worldwide embrace fabulous forms, glamorous geometries, and stunning silhouettes.

Lens°ass Architects

site: Pelt, Belgium
Located in a village, the only thing traditional about this new 4,100-square-foot, two-level house for a retired couple is the extensive use of brick, a favorite local material. It forms the body of the structure, two cylindrical volumes topped with a single cast-concrete roof slab, folded up at its ends like a jaunty hat. Walls of glazing keep the upper-level kitchen, dining, and living areas bright and airy, while a wide, slotlike shaft brings light to the bedroom and bathroom in the basement, which is accessed via a sculptural concrete staircase.

Horma Estudio

site: Puerto de Sagunto, Spain
Classic Iberian colors and materials—white lime render and terra-cotta colored tile—make the contrasting exterior forms and geometries of this 4,300-square-foot house even more graphic. Inside, the archetypal hues reappear in pointillistic terrazzo flooring that’s joined by maple and cherry built-in furniture and cabinetry, blanched walls and ceilings, and oodles of natural light thanks to wide swaths of glazing—all of which help to orchestrate the complex play of curves and angles, solids and voids.

Atelier Štěpán

site: Nový Jicˇín, Czech Republic
An enormous oval aperture punched in the flat roof of this 3,600-square-foot, two-story villa allows for a gardenlike atrium—an expanse of grass lawn flanked by a sauna, plunge pool, and timber decking—that really brings the outdoors inside. The large opening is repeated on a smaller scale with James Turrell–like circular skylights above the living area, stairwell, and elsewhere, all bringing nature even deeper into the heart of the home.

Peter Pichler Architecture

site: Termeno, Italy
Located on a vineyard hilltop in the South Tyrol, this new 4,100-square-foot villa exults in dramatic lines and intriguing geometries inspired by the surrounding Alpine landscape. Comprising folded planes of cast concrete, the low, ribbonlike form embraces a central courtyard protected from strong winds off nearby Lake Garda. Surfaces clad in local wood warm the simple, minimalist interiors where strategically positioned glass walls frame magnificent views while maintaining privacy.

Pophouse Captures the Collaborative Spirit of Rock Ventures for its Detroit Headquarters

2022 Best of Year Winner for Medium Corporate Office

The infill of an office building in a downtown Detroit complex had just been completed when Pophouse decided to blast an enormous hole through two floors of it. The firm was planning the new headquarters of Rock Ventures and the Rock Family of Companies, and the designers envisioned a monumental spiral staircase at the point where angled sides of the complex meet. The staircase, the central feature of the project, would not only connect the lower and upper levels of the 50,000- square-foot office but also unite the multiple teams housed there, creating serendipitous opportunities for employees who don’t normally work together to come into contact while going up and down the stairs, fostering a sense of being part of a larger enterprise. But, of course, demolishing brand-new construction would be expensive and disruptive.

Another client would almost certainly have said no. But Jennifer Gilbert, the founder and creative director of Pophouse, had the ear of her client, Dan Gilbert, founder and chairman of Rock Ventures, Rock FOC, and Rocket Companies, to whom she has long been married. And as his wife and partner in many ventures, she is part boss, too, and was thus able to call the shots much more than is usually the case on the commercial projects the studio works on—with stunning results. “Wearing the creative director hat and some of the owner hat was great,” she recalls.

Not that she was doing the work alone. Just as her husband’s business has grown—it began with his founding of what would become Quicken Loans in 1985, and the Rock Family of Companies now includes a portfolio of more than 100 diverse entities including Rocket Companies, 100 Thieves, Stock X, Dictionary.com, and the NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers—so, too, has Pophouse. The firm, which is also part of the Rock FOC, prides itself on a data-driven approach to design that incorporates the latest findings on things like biophilia. So when Rock Ventures and the Rock FOC were ready to move from cramped former quarters elsewhere in the complex to a roomier, more sophisticated space, Pophouse was up to the job.

Chrissy Fehan, the firm’s design director, and her colleagues fleshed out a scheme that incorporates multiple circular spaces, not the least being the spiral stair in its airy atrium, based in part on research suggesting that such spaces spur creativity. The first is in reception, on the lower floor. Here, under backlit stretched fabric, a terrazzo floor is modeled on Detroit’s hub-and-spoke street grid. The waiting-area gallery just beyond is circular, too. Where circles were not possible, Pophouse rounded the corners of private offices and installed curvy furniture through­out, notably plump Pierre Paulin chairs in reception, a long and winding sofa by Koz Susani Design in a lounge, and an impressive 16-foot-diameter conference table in the boardroom, which itself is round in shape.

Also key to the office’s concept is lively artwork, on which Pophouse collaborated with Library Street Collective, a downtown Detroit gallery that focuses on artists, both local and not, who push boundaries. One standout piece, by Faile, anchors the grand staircase: It spirals down to a colorful round of inlaid mosaic tile incorporating such words as “heart,” “hope,” and “dream.” “It embodies all the great work happening in our city,” says Fehan, who came to Detroit for college and then stayed. Pophouse surrounded the installation with a C-shape bench made of modular sections that can be removed so the area can be used for events. The inclusion of works by local artists Jason Revok and the late Charles McGee underscore the Detroit-proud theme.

Then there are the basketball-related installations. A wall in Dan Gilbert’s office is devoted to a Tyrrell Winston assemblage comprised of dozens of deflated basketballs, including, of course, a couple from the Cavaliers. Outside his office, a room-size walk-in closet has a shelf with autographed balls plus, hanging from clothing rods, various team jerseys from which a lucky visitor might get to make a selection to take home. “We used to have all the Cavs things stuffed in a storage closet,” Jennifer Gilbert says. “Why not celebrate it?”

She and her team also paid homage to her husband’s “isms”—sayings such as “yes before no” and “simplicity is genius”—in the auditorium, where Cody Hudson rendered them on acoustical wall panels; rift-cut white-oak millwork here and throughout the headquarters further dampen sound. For the auditorium’s seating, the designers used sleight of hand: a benching system that incorporates Eames Molded Plywood Dining Chairs, minus their chrome legs.

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Equally inventive is a wall of preserved moss near a part of the office devoted to the Rocket Community Fund and the Gilbert Family Foundation, the philanthropic organizations the couple run that are devoted to growing opportunity and equity in Detroit as well as other national and international causes. The moss maps out Detroit’s municipal districts in varying shades of yellow and green. Small wooden boards that slide in and out of sleeves embedded in the plant matter are laser-engraved with stories about the work being done by their organizations.

If it’s not already clear, Dan Gilbert is a Detroit native, his wife grew up in one of its suburbs, and together they are dedicated to revitalizing the Motor City. A dozen years ago, Dan Gilbert relocated Rock Ventures and the Rock FOC to the then-languishing downtown, and, in the years since, Bedrock, a real estate company he controls, has been redeveloping properties in the area. Last year, the couple announced a $500 million pledge to build opportunity and equity for all Detroit residents who have faced systemic barriers to economic and social mobility. The city’s comeback and the Gilberts appear to be inextricably entwined.

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Pophouse: jordan wills; sarah davis; allen largin; monica pace; lauren burnheimer; nicole pelton; brandon bartel; makyle welke; alessandro pagura

ghafari associates: architect of record.

library street collective: art consultant

abd engineering & design: acoustician

bluewater technologies group: audiovisual

mod interiors: woodwork

whiting-turner: general contractor

m cohen and sons: stair fabrication (atrium)

nienkamper: sofa (gallery)

Kvadrat Maharam: sofa upholstery

ligne roset: chairs (gallery, reception), tables (boardroom lounge)

massproductions: tables (lounge)

noom home: chairs

kvadrat: chair fabric

urban electric co.: sconces

axis lighting: linear fixtures

vogue furniture: custom desk (reception)

artisan tile inc.: custom terrazzo

bernhardt design: ottoman (reception), guest chairs, table (office), chairs, ottomans, table (breakout

herman miller: task chair (reception), workstations (work area)

Cumberland Furniture: sofa (boardroom lounge)

artifort: chairs

grand rapids chair company: chair (phone room)

matter made: lamp

Arte: wallcovering

planterra conservatory: moss wall (philanthropy gallery)

halcon furniture: casegoods (office)

fiandre: floor tile (auditorium, boardroom)

acoufelt: acoustical baffles (office area)

Tom Dixon: ceiling fixtures (closet)

Coalesse: chairs (boardroom)

carlisle wide plank floors: engineered flooring

fusion lighting; luminii; prudential lighting company; usai lighting: lighting

barrisol: stretched ceiling

armstrong: acoustical ceiling

Add tag via side panel:

certainteed; navy island: acoustical paneling

Benjamin Moore & Co.; Dunn-Edwards; Farrow & Ball; Sherwin-Williams Company: paint

Chet Architecture and Ghislaine Viñas Celebrate the Past With This Striking Staircase

2021 Best of Year winner for Staircase

“Celebrating the past while nurturing the present was important to us,” architect Chet Callahan says of the extensive remodeling and decorating of the late 19th–century Los Feliz house he shares with his husband and their two sons. That adventurous spirit is nowhere more evident than in the monolithic, sculptural spiral staircase linking the second floor and the converted attic. It inhabits part of the four-story central atrium created when an existing minstrels’ gallery was removed, linking interior spaces and bringing in more light and air.

The white staircase floats between the period wood paneling, a playful exchange between old and new. It is visible from most parts of the house and—from certain angles—appears a completely minimalist modern addition. But that is a delightful deception. A collaboration between Callahan and designer Ghislaine Viñas, the stair’s interior, with a Adrian Kay Wong mural, is a joyous riot of color, texture, and pattern, the kaleidoscopic walls dancing on either side, flanking a coil of sky-blue carpeted steps. “The imagery incorporates not only aspects of adjacent spaces but also features seen through the windows: the soft layers of the hills, gradients of green, curved roofs of the nearby observatory,” Wong says. Over the stair’s edge one can admire the hand-carved millwork from a century ago alongside contemporary art, one complementing the other. “It was important to make a clear distinction between the modern and the historic,” Callahan says of the style mash-up.

Chet Architecture: Chet Callahan

Ghislaine Viñas: Ghislaine Viñas

Patalab Architecture Breathes New Life into a 19th-Century South London Cottage

When renovating a 19th-century Victorian terrace house in South London, Patalab Architecture first turned to its bones. “The house, when purchased by our client, was in a tired state,” says founder and director Uwe Schmidt-Hess, noting its narrow width at 4 meters, or roughly 13 feet. “There were major structural issues that needed to be addressed, justifying the opportunity to fundamentally rearrange the layout.” The existing stairs also made the second bedroom on the upper floor unusable, leading Schmidt-Hess and his team to rearrange them, creating a new focal point in the home. The innovative triple-height stairwell connects the ground floor with the roof, illuminated by a skylight above that brings light into the center of the home. At the same time, moving the stairwell enabled the team to create an open floor plan, which makes for expansive vistas throughout. “Our design approach was to introduce spatial generosity and respond to contemporary living requirements without losing the connection to the building’s history,” he adds.  

The kitchen, with its pale green storage cabinets and whitewashed rough sawn oak cabinetry, serves as a main throughway, connecting the interiors to the outdoor garden through expansive glass doors. “These material and color connections weave the interior and exterior together” Schmidt-Hess shares. While the garden, designed by Adolfo Harrison, is bookended by a small yoga studio and features a winding path that intersects with raised herb and vegetable beds as well as fruit trees. “All this contributes to the sense of space in the house that makes it appear bigger than it actually is,” he says, noting that the compact cottage maintains its charm while offering contemporary comforts.   

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