Level Changes: Defining Spaces
Change a Mood and Differentiate Living Areas With a Few Steps Up or Down
Typically the floors of a house are treated not as topographies with changes in level but as continuous flat surfaces, extending from exterior wall to exterior wall and partitioned into rooms. This applies to apartments, one-story homes, and houses with multiple floors, often stacked floors connected by stairs. But of course this is not always the case. Split-level houses may require intermediate levels. Mezzanines may be inserted into tall spaces. And who can forget conversation pits?
Changes in level inside houses may be more expensive than flat floor plates, and they may be discouraging to people who have difficulty climbing steps. But when desired and even necessary they serve a purpose that often improves the character of a home's spaces.
The following examples highlight the ways that level changes impact the flow of interior spaces, be they open, closed, or somewhere in between. The vertical changes range from one step to half a floor.
Changes in level inside houses may be more expensive than flat floor plates, and they may be discouraging to people who have difficulty climbing steps. But when desired and even necessary they serve a purpose that often improves the character of a home's spaces.
The following examples highlight the ways that level changes impact the flow of interior spaces, be they open, closed, or somewhere in between. The vertical changes range from one step to half a floor.
The open door in the bottom right of this photo brings one to stone steps and this intermediate level. Open-riser wood steps ascend to a living space bathed in light from large windows. So what is the space in between? ...
... It's a dining room with an intimacy aided by its remove from the living room, from both the level change and the wall dividing the two spaces. Note how the ascent of the stairs follows the upward angle of the roof.
Here four steps link the kitchen above to the open living-dining space below. A peninsula with bar stools melds these two realms. The elevated kitchen enables one to oversee the living space from a lofty position.
This house also uses changes in level to differentiate living, dining, and kitchen spaces in an otherwise open layout. Below is the living room; up a half-level is the kitchen; up again is the dining table. The last occupies a mezzanine that overlooks the living room and creates an intimate seating area below.
This loft-like living space features a dining room a few steps up from the seating below. Above is a space with glass walls that overlooks the living room, most likely a bedroom that requires some privacy (note the curtains on the right). The elevated dining space helps break down the tall scale of the double-height space and set up the seating (note the L-shaped couch following the stair and intermediate level).
Not all level changes need be as dramatic as the previous example. This entryway leads one up a few steps to a level where people either ascend to the upper floor or continue to the left to the open living space. Movement through the house is clear in this view, strengthened by the slight change in level in the foreground.
These steps lead from the kitchen to the a tall loft-like living space in the background. Note the steps that ascend from the living room to the floor above the kitchen, most likely a bedroom. A unique view of the living room is had from this kitchen.
The center of this three-story townhouse on a steep site in San Francisco uses a level change of a few steps to break down the open living space. In the position of the camera is the living-dining area, and up the steps is the kitchen and an adjacent family room. This change in level is a natural fit with the flow of the house.
Only a couple steps separates this living room and this kitchen with dining island beyond. In the far distance, where a curving wood wall can be glimpsed, is a sitting room a couple steps down from the kitchen. This gives this central space more prominence than the spaces with dark wood flooring that flank it.
Even one step can make a big difference. Here the dining room is inside a portal that is positioned next to the entry and juts towards the front of the house. The step up is needed to make the room a four-sided wood object in the house. It also accentuates the movement into this special space overlooking a small yet wonderful landscaped area.
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