Architects step up to take stair designs to the next level
Staircases are a gift to artists who use this simple device in a multitude of creative ways to manipulate and even distort space
There are few things more frustrating in a city dweller's day than a slow lift. And yet, we can happily stand and stare at a stair.
For staircases are more than people-movers. The simplest means of getting from one place to a higher plane has been around for thousands of years - and today, it seems we are more in love with them than ever.
Staircases, says British architect Alex de Rijke, who designed the Endless Stair for the 2013 London Design Festival that debuted outside the Tate Modern, are sculpture's gift to architecture.
"Most people find lifts convenient but boring. Stairs are simply more interesting spatially, compositionally and experientially," says de Rijke, a director of dRMM Architects and dean of the Architecture Royal College of Art.
Stairs can manipulate and even distort space in ways that people can find curious or compelling, perhaps even beautiful, he says. Consider the spectacle of a debutante making her entrance; Gone with the Wind's unforgettable staircase scene; Harry Potter's moving stairs - you can see why he believes that our infatuation with stairs is nothing new.
"For the last 4,000 years there has been interesting work done with stair design," says de Rijke.