The Stepwell House

The Stepwell House examines how both ancient and contemporary elements alike can be recontextualised, and come to belong within the same home.

We redefined a two-storey Stoke Newington flat into an art gallery, private home and outdoor stepwell - a series of contradictory typologies that play with ideas of function and decoration.

The stepwell became an important narrative device for the project, echoing the story of our clients’ personal heritage, and reinterpreting an old motif in a new context.

Stepwells are an ancient form found across South Asia. These intricate structures combined function and decoration. They were primarily water reservoirs, designed to access groundwater and capture monsoon rains. In the summer months, they also offered respite from the climate. All year round, they served as social spaces for people to gather.

Here, the stepwell is a sculptural element that rationalises access across the flat’s two floors, while being deliberately irrational in its formal articulation. This encourages a series of uses beyond a simple flight of stairs leading to a garden – becoming both sculpture and spontaneous seating while blending in with the landscape.

The form of the stepwell is reimagined too. Rather than being carved from stone, it is created with stacked gabions. This often-overlooked design feature – typically used for retaining walls – introduced another important motif to this project: stainless steel mesh.

The project aims to tell a story by using mesh in contrasting situations. Upon entrance we see a mesh bridge and balustrade enclosing stairs. In the kitchen, mesh is used to form shelves. In the rear elevation it layers the windows as a filter for daylight. As a conclusion, mesh is filled with stone to create the stepped gabion landscape – colliding the old and the new.

The fully refurbished interiors are elevated by a curation of furniture, lighting and finishes from Max Radford Gallery, including stained oak joinery finished in a grid that echoes the proportions of steel mesh, and bespoke stone tiling dotted with distinctive fossils, echoing ancient forms once more.