How to fit a new staircase in a building where almost everything is high monumental? That is the design task that MW architectuur is working on for this building on the Apothekersdijk in Leiden.

In this building - which consists of a system of a number of smaller buildings - a so-called "family house" will be realised. The children who have grown up will be able to have their own part of the house and the parents will soon be able to continue living here in their own part of the house.

In order to create a logical layout for this, it was necessary to fit a staircase in the front house from the ground floor to the first floor.

In the 18th century, that staircase was removed, which made it very difficult to arrange the floors of the front house as separate family parts.

Various options and possibilities were studied and discussed with the client and the Heritage Department of the municipality. After a great deal of puzzling and measuring, we managed to find a fitting for the new staircase that would affect the high monumental structure as little as possible.