Ellie Stathaki is the Architecture Editor at Wallpaper*. She trained as an architect at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece and studied architectural history at the Bartlett in London. Now an established journalist, she has been a member of the Wallpaper* team since 2006, visiting buildings across the globe and interviewing leading architects such as Tadao Ando and Rem Koolhaas. Ellie has also taken part in judging panels, moderated events, curated shows and contributed in books, such as The Contemporary House (Thames & Hudson, 2018) and Glenn Sestig Architecture Diary (2020).
Blurton Road, an east London house extension project by local studio Emil Eve Architects, reimagines a Victorian home into a modern interpretation of a midcentury dwelling. The commission aimed not only to improve the functionality and wellbeing qualities of the domestic space for the clients – a young family with small children – but also to infuse the historic shell with the owners' love for modernist architecture and design.
The goal was to create ‘places to relax, play and socialise all around the house', explains the team, led by studio founders Emma and Ross Perkin. The staircase itself, made from white powder-coated steel with fumed oak treads, connects physically and visually the kitchen, which is situated in the extension and looks out to a green garden, and the upper floor – where a mezzanine with a glazed screen wall leads visitors on to the living room.