Standalone · Warm Minimal / Soft Organic · Design study
Runda Standalone House
Runda, Nairobi
- Area
- 4,521 sq ft
- 420 m²
- Ceiling height
- 6.10 m hall · 3.30 m ground
- Key materials
- Terrazzo, Iroko, Lime plaster
- Completion year
- 2027
- Design study
Act I
The brief & the constraint
A double-height hall resolved with one stair.
A new two-storey house in Runda with a double-height entrance hall that the family walked through and never used.
They wanted the hall to become a place to sit, read and gather, without losing the light it brings into the middle of the house.
A 6.1 m void at the centre of the plan, used only as a corridor.
Act II
The framing decisions
Decision 01
The stair becomes furniture
An iroko stair rises along the long wall with a deep built-in bench and bookshelves under it, so the hall's lowest metre and a half is lived in.
Elevation — iroko stair with bench and shelves Decision 02
A horizon at 3.3 m
A slim lime-plaster band at first-floor level runs around the hall, matching the ground-floor ceiling height. It gives the tall room a human-scale line to read against.
Section — plaster band at 3.3 m Decision 03
Terrazzo that flows outside
Terrazzo with local aggregate runs from the hall through to the terrace at the same level, so the house opens to the garden without a threshold.
Bright kitchen opening to the outside
Act III
The lived result
Orbit video: added at handover photography.
“The hall used to be where we took our shoes off. Now it is where the children do their homework.”