When looked at comparative to other spaces in a 15, stairs are a thing. They are basically vertical corridors of motion, but in several cases they are a part of other spaces — open to them physically or taking within a room to connect upstairs and downstairs. There are many, many methods of articulating stairs and their components, but here I will concentrate on staircase that carve a space for themselves through the use of solid walls. In this sense they are like other rooms — jumped by walls and different in their own right (not including, of course, open living areas that blur the boundaries between tasks like living, cooking and dining). These examples show these stairs with distances also affect the spaces around them.
OKB Architecture
This glowing green arrangement in a recent ideabook on entry measures spurred me to make this ideabook. What I find appealing about the stair would be the way it is inserted into a narrow cavity (the diameter of the stair, basically) that is set off by the rest of the arrangement by the use of black partitions instead of green. I can imagine the motion down and up the stair is special.
OKB Architecture
What’s also interesting is the stair functions a roof patio. Together with the walls lined in black and also the stair over open, one is pulled up the stair from the perspective of heavens and the a variety of lighting conditions throughout the day. It is as if a person knows where he or she’s going before getting there.
DMVF Architects
The same thing is happening in this small wooden object inserted in an old cottage. A stair goes up via a distance to a mezzanine, but it is obviously beneath the ceiling instead of the sky.
DMVF Architects
Having the measures spill out into the area is a nice touch. Then they curl up between the wood-lined walls.
DMVF Architects
This distance then curls, in effect writing a letter “s” of motion from downstairs into the sleeping platform over.
Davignon Martin Architecture
1 thing which a wall-lined stair could reach is a transition between distances. The lower zone in this example is white. Yet above a wood is introduced, in effect making a differentiation between the flooring.
Davignon Martin Architecture
Another project by precisely the same architect functions similarly, shifting from white to timber. Note the narrow bump-out with the sloped bottom; this is the stair accessing the upstairs.
Davignon Martin Architecture
A glance in the mezzanine into where the stair leads shows the way the wood creates the stair’s guardrail.
Davignon Martin Architecture
One more example in another house designed by precisely the same architect demonstrates how much a stair could derive its personality from colour and surface. The dark paint and robust wood grain give this distance an nearly museum-like quality.
Lucid Architecture
Thinking about colour and substance, here’s a project which uses open-riser wood measures between white walls. The gray wall in the center is a strong accent which anchors the entire stair. (Also note the canvases in bright colour and the yellow ring, adding splashes of colour.)
Lucid Architecture
A step back from the prior view demonstrates how the gray wall extends upward the upper floor.
Enjoy Architecture
The stair in this Japanese house is quite cavernous, set off by an arched opening and shadowy measures.
Enjoy Architecture
Yet at the top floor the stair opens upward, embracing views of a timber construction over.
Quartersawn Design Build
1 last example shows the potential in walls which are not completely solid yet still define a distance. From here we could see open-riser wood measures within white walls, emphasized by means of a wood wall at the center and one on the left side.
Quartersawn Design Build
Yet that wall on the left is really made of narrow slats, as we could see from a side view. We can see it to the timber wall between the stair functions, but we also grasp the diagonal motion of the stair. It is a filtered perspective that provides interest to the open living room whilst at the same time bringing some natural light downstairs. (Note also the way the top of the staircase eats away in the ceiling over the corridor, an interesting touch.)