A triplex Mumbai penthouse contains sculptural staircases and expansive terraces

An elaborate Mumbai penthouse was born out of the constrictions of lockdown, creating a spacious and artful living space that has blossomed further in the years that followed. The work of Mumbai-based S+PS Architects, Enso House is a rich domestic environment enlivened by art, design and bold architectural interventions.

Tour this refreshed Mumbai penthouse

‘A lot was happening in 2020 when we were appointed to design a penthouse on the 50th and 51st floor, with a terrace and pool on the 52nd floor,’ says practice co-founder Shilpa Gore-Shah, who set up S+PS Architects with Pinkish Shah in 1997. ‘There was a need to feel a sense of freedom in an otherwise restrictive situation that the world had come to during Covid-19,’ she continues. ‘One wanted to sense the free air and the ground simultaneously.’

The tower has views across the Aarey Milk Colony, part of the Sanjay Gandhi National Park and one of the few remaining green spaces within greater Mumbai. The clients had previously spent 15 years living in Chicago, but the opportunity of creating a completely custom home in Mumbai offered up new opportunities, inside and out.

The existing apartment was stripped out and reconfigured. Arranged across three floors, the most important new element was a new location for the staircase. S+PS removed the original and added in a spiral stair, a ‘primary protagonist’ that unites the space and becomes the visual focus for the entire apartment.

The staircase, finished in a vivid orange with timber treads, emphasises the double height space in the main living room and is the first thing one sees when one enters the apartment at the 50th floor.

The bold colour of the winding structure also serves as a backdrop to a living that stretches the length of the apartment, complete with two separate terraces providing views across the national park. Also on this level is the kitchen and staff accommodation, along with a generous en-suite grandparents’ room.

The floor of the main living room is laid with a terrazzo ‘carpet’, a patterned inlay that incorporates golden Jaisalmer stone, granite, marble and copper, paired with a hand-woven carpet designed by the architects to pick up the same patterns and forms. On this level there’s an enclosable media space, as well as bespoke storage made from wood and copper and a raised glass bar counter.

The dining room sits in the double-height space alongside the spiral stair. It overlooks a generous plant-filled balcony, with walls and ceiling made from softly curved concrete panels to modulate the light. On the level above, the architects have installed a rotating polished steel window, a circle that pivots open to create a connection between the dining room and the son’s bedroom on the floor above. The architects cite the inspiration of Anish Kapoor’s Cloud Gate sculpture in creating this playful device.

Up here there’s also a multi-functional space that can serve as guest accommodation or a Puja room, complete with work design and a sliding partition to enclose it off from the rest of the apartment. In addition to the son’s bedroom suite, this level also contains the primary bedroom; both bedrooms share a terrace. A second spiral staircase leads up to the terrace level, lit by a new skylight atop a polished copper cone.

The roof terrace is expansive, and comes complete with a private pool, alfresco dining room with louvered ceiling to protect against the monsoon, along with more seating, a projection wall, planting and even vegetable patches. ‘Having a private pool with a terrace with the open sky above was a boon, but one missed the treetops,’ Gore-Shah says. ‘Luckily the borrowed landscape of the Aarey Colony helped soothe the eyes.’ The apartment’s name comes from the Japanese word ‘ensō’, a circular symbol that expresses the state of wholeness and completion.

S+PS Architects