No.1 Deansgate

Complete renovation of a triplex penthouse apartment occupying the top three floors of No.1 Deansgate in Manchester City Centre. The existing apartment had two staircases — a spiral and a U-stair — both poorly positioned, consuming usable floor area and fragmenting the plan across the three levels.

Both staircases were removed and replaced with two new stairs in more efficient positions, freeing up significant floor area. New structural openings were cut through the concrete floor slabs, requiring existing steel beams to be cut and relocated. The result is a plan that flows continuously across three levels rather than being divided by circulation.

The new stairs are glass — treads and balustrade — designed to maintain visual continuity between the levels rather than interrupting it. Light passes through them. The city views carry across the full depth of the apartment at every floor.

One stair rises through a full-height void behind a dark glass wall. From the dining area, the stair reads as a sculptural element — white treads stepping upward through a reflective screen, with the Manchester skyline beyond.

Internal walls were removed and repositioned throughout. A new bedroom was added along with two new bathrooms, and new dressing rooms were built into the bedroom layouts. The kitchen was relocated to open up the main living spaces, with cooking equipment and drinks bars positioned in the glazed buffer zones at the building's edge — daylight and city views while you cook.

The glazed buffer zones along the facade were repurposed as usable living space — louvred ventilation panels opening directly to the sky, a barbecue and lounger positioned against the panoramic glazing. These threshold spaces between inside and outside are where the apartment is at its most distinctive.

A marble island anchors one of the bathroom spaces — freestanding against the full-height glazing, sunlight falling across the stone through the structural grid of the facade. The material is heavy and permanent against the lightness of the glass and steel.

At night the apartment inverts. The city becomes the backdrop — lit rooftops and tower cranes reflected in the dark glass partitions. The dining stair glows white against the skyline. The buffer zone bars come into their own.

The wider perspective situates the penthouse within the Manchester skyline — a precise insertion at the top of the existing tower, its glazed levels legible against the city.