Shad Thames Water Tower

Located above a 4th floor warehouse loft apartment, the previously windowless un-insulated space inside this 19th century water tower had been accessed via a tiny headroom-restricted spiral stair; with onward access to the roof then provided by a similarly compromised and massively over-scaled steel escape stair which had taken up virtually the entire double-height volume.

The objective of this project was therefore to colonise the under-utilised volume of the tower to create additional living space for the apartment below as part of a rationalised, comfortable and light-drenched circulation route to a roof-top terrace in the redundant water tank above.

Two tightly-configured flights of stairs, stacked one above the other in a continuous top-to-bottom slot, now link two intermediate mezzanine floors, with a third stair rising from the upper mezzanine to the roof. The first mezzanine provides a work space and the second a sitting eyrie with long-reaching city views. These have added around 16m2 of usable floor space within the existing volume. The sum of the elements creating a natural and instinctive processional route up through the tower to the roof terrace.

Frameless skylights and glass landings draw natural light down through the slot, and the eye upwards from the previously rather dark accommodation below.