Playful hallways for your home

A stairway design by A360 Architects, Bengaluru. The mid-landing features wall niches to display art.

Hyderabad-based Urban Zen designed this caged stairway with a koi pond in the centre.

A stairway design through an indoor green space (with a mango tree) by MARS Architects, Bengaluru. 

Dark and narrow passageways and staircases that lack in sensory appeal are being replaced by more engaging designs now. Walking from one portion of your home to another becomes a fun and playful experience with these new looks.

Experts share their insights.

Create curiosity

A playful passageway should be able to make one want to walk through it for no particular reason, says Mahendra Mohan, managing director of MARS Architects, Bengaluru. He demonstrated the idea at a home in Kerala, where he crafted a teak wood stairway through an indoor green space (home to birds).

The stairs connect the formal living with the upper living area, a library, and a home theatre. “We included a mango tree that was in the plot into our design,” he shares. The tree, natural breeze, sunlight, and a touch of natural wood under one’s feet were key to lending an energising feel. “For the landing, we took inspiration from the shape of the plot and made it triangular,” he adds.

Prathima Seethur, principal architect with Wright Inspires, Bengaluru, says, “Natural light transfers the mood of the outside to the inside, when we open up to the sky there is always an element of surprise in the dynamic patterns of light and shade.” At a Bengaluru home, she designed an open-to-sky curved stairway and placed it at the center.

“We arrive at placement based on the flow of spaces,” she explains. The idea behind a curved design was to create different engaging vantage points. The stairs were made from recycled wood. “We wanted it to glow in the sunlight, so we painted the hand supports in white,” she shares. An additional space behind it can be used to display artifacts or plants.

Add nature experiences

Keep architectural interventions minimal and soften the space with landscaping, suggests Sebastian Jose, principal architect with Silpi Architects, Kochi.

At a Kochi home, Sebastian designed a passageway with a pool on one side and a green courtyard on the other. He complemented it with lights and roof-top greenery that hangs over the passage. Bare concrete for the ceiling and simple leather-finish granite flooring, were his go-tos here. “To cover the boundary walls and make the space appear larger, we planted plenty of bamboo,” he says.

Ruby Goswamy, partner and principal architect with Design Square, Jaipur, explored a similar idea at a Jaipur home. She designed a stone bridge over a small pool that features an artificial waterfall. “The sound of the water is stimulating and playful. We hid plumbing lines behind the planters,” she shares. The indoors were merged with this zone using floor-to-ceiling windows and balconies. “There is also a seating zone at the end of the bridge where one can host small gatherings,” she adds.

At a Bengaluru home, Subhash Saraff, principal architect with A360 Architects, Bengaluru, faced a challenge: the plot was at the south-facing end, but he had to create the doorway in the northeast quadrant (a vastu-based requirement). “We made an enchanting granite walkway connecting the two zones. We clad the walls on both sides with Chappadi stone, and to break the monotony, we added wide landing areas after each step,” he says. The idea was to make the experience refreshing. Flowering plants were key in this experience, he adds.

Play with focal elements

Meena Murthy Kakkar, design head and partner, Envisage, Gurugram, Haryana, says, “Passages can emanate a feeling of walking through an art gallery if endowed with exciting artwork.” Also, sufficient lighting enhances a passageway’s playfulness. If your passage does not receive enough natural light, opt for good-quality artificial light, she adds.

Meena designed one such artistic passage for a recent Gurugram home. She articulated it with handmade ceramic flooring, veneer, textured paint on the walls and a veneered ceiling, and spotlighting.

Subhash explored the same at another Bengaluru home where he created an interesting mid-landing area with wall niches that can hold paintings and sculptures. “In place of the traditional solid staircase, we gave gaps between each step,” he notes.

At her Jaipur residential project, Ruby curated a family collage that covered an entire stairway wall. She kept the pictures in black and white to play well with the monotonic space. A surface-mounted chandelier finished the look. “Rather than keeping the stairway completely closed, we created a visual connection between the upper floor and the stairway through a large opening,” she shares.

Rohit Suraj, founder and CEO of Urban Zen, Hyderabad, talks about a caged staircase with a central koi pond, which he designed for a Hyderabad home.

“We worked with lava stone walls and natural wood for the stairs and framed them using wires that run from top to bottom,” he says. Apart from throwing a mesmerising display of shadows, the mesh allows one to experience the open core of the stairs, he adds.

Challenges

*Psychological requirements of the users are key in designing such experiences, says Mahendra.

*Lighting and paint colour choices for elements that are partly or completely outdoors.

Wallet factor

*For walkways and bridges, set aside Rs 500 to Rs 1,000 per sq ft.

*Playful stairways should cost about Rs 2 lakh.