A wireframe staircase leads to a new top floor inside this renovated apartment in Milan by architect Francesco Librizzi.

Before renovation the small apartment comprised just two rooms in a house built in 1900, but Librizzi was able to insert a mezzanine bedroom beneath the high ceilings.

The staircase is made from 14mm-wide lengths of iron, which create ladder-like treads inside a rectilinear tower.

For stability, the base of the staircase is screwed into the hexagonal concrete tiles that cover the floor.

See all our stories about staircases »

Here's some text from Francesco Librizzi:

A very small apartment within a very “Milanese” building dated 1900. Two rooms plus a bathroom, characterized by a narrow footprint compared to the quite high ceiling.

Windows, doors, and above all the floor tiles, had finishes and materials survived to another century: something precious to save as a resource for the new inhabitants of this space.

The strong identity of the interiors and the peculiarity of the narrow high section, gave the chance for a minimum but very significant intervention. We thought it was only necessary to unveil the hidden potential of the space, leaving all the rest almost untouched. Nothing melanchonical, but also no obsession for contemporarity.

Adding a new layer to the exiguous surface available in the house was necessary. Making the trajectory to reach it architectonically visible, was all we needed to do. A new thin wireframe wrapping the bodies while approching to “+1 level”: a suspended night area inside the old house.

Axonometric drawing - click above for larger image