Our client wanted to create a grand interior befitting of her family’s affluence, but was keen to differentiate the design of their home for that of their neighbors. Our first gesture was to create a unified space as the backbone of the home – a large double-height vaulted ceiling creates a sense of grandeur without resorting to the extravagance of excessive ornament - something so prevalent in the Chinese high-end residential market. Our doubly-curved vault maximizes the ceiling height beneath a suburban pitched roof architecture while creating a smooth venetian plastered volume that exhibits the play of natural light. This space houses the ceremonial entrance, the formal living area, fireplace and a new elliptical glass staircase.

The glass stair was introduced to physically and visually connect the 3 floors of the residence with a single sculptural gesture. Using slumped glass with a gradient frit, the balustrade of the stair masks the structural steel base and creates a poetically foggy effect, which the client began referring to as a ‘cloud’.