Prima Vista, Fabrica de Glucoză, București

These stairwells started with a competition. Prima Vista invited us to take part with an idea, and if our project won the jury's vote, it would be built.

We accepted and took it all like a sketch from university. I wanted to get the most out of the exercise, to play a little with the brief and enjoy the freedom a competition gives you: to let the idea flow, control as little as possible and have no expectations. We never thought for a moment that we could win.

And we won. And it happened.

We imagined a bright, serene space in white and a pale blue, with fluted walls, hidden light outlining them, round mirrors opening up the views and plants bringing life into the passageways. A place you walk through every day, but which makes you smile every time.

And the greatest joy is seeing these stairwells still photographed by fellow architects who design the apartments in the complex.