A bathtub on the stairs? A Venice house does things differently

Venice residents Asa Soltan Rahmati and Shaahin Cheyene wanted to preserve most of their 970-foot bungalow while adding a thoroughly modern addition. With the help of the architectural team — Ali Jeevanjee, Steffen Leisner and Phillip Trigas — a series of architectural forms managed to add space while respecting the scale of other buildings in the neighborhood. The modern, minimalist design co-exists with the homeowners’ love of the unconventional. Case in point: Soltan Rahmati lies in a bathtub in the middle of her art studio. The fully functional claw-foot fixture sits out in the open, on a landing for stairs that lead to a rooftop deck. Soltan Rahmati likes that the tub looks onto the two faces of her neighborhood: the low-income apartments to the west, and the gentrified streets to the north.