Inspired by Francesco Goya’s Los Caprichos, The Sleep Staircase is a hybrid hotel-clinic on a sloped site adjacent to Archway Road, addressing issues surrounding sleep – especially prominent in London and post-pandemic. Through a series of spaces split into the descent (falling asleep) and ascent (waking up), it aims to provide optimal sleeping environments alongside pre-emptive treatment through measurement and calibration of the body. A ‘tollgate for health’ to re-read and re-visit the body, the staircase is a prototype for future interventions, nesting in in-between urban spaces.

The structural system uses whole timber sections, celebrating the natural geometry and reducing waste. To minimise ground impact, beams span across existing trees to carry the suspended spaces below. Since the design propagates around the trees, it is non-human-centric, with the idea of not being in full control also portrayed through the notion of ‘falling’ and active tactile engagement within the internal spaces.

Ground source heat pumps are implemented to utilise the waste heat dissipated by the Tube, with underfloor heating integrated into the structure alongside an MVHR air system.