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A Few Steps Higher: 14 Unusually Artistic Modern Staircase Designs

11 Sep

[ By SA Rogers in Design & Fixtures & Interiors. ]

Stairs are inherently utilitarian, but some architects choose to really step up their interiors with highly sculptural designs that make you want to walk up and down a bunch of times. Cantilevered creations, floating stairs, spirals made of stone and zig-zagging graphic designs add both literal and figurative movement to these apartments, museums, offices and shops.

Stone and Wire in London by Groupwork + Amin Taha

During the completion of a renovation on a terraced house in central London dating to the 1950s, Groupwork + Amin Taha created a gorgeous centerpiece with this stone staircase, spiraling around a central cylinder-shaped wire cage, which acts as a balustrade. The load-bearing cantilevered travertine staircase extends from the basement to a skylight in the apartment’s roof.

Atrium Stairs at Moscow’s Dominion Office Building by Zaha Hadid

There’s something very futuristic-looking about the stark, graphic black-and-white stairs zig-zagging through the atrium of Zaha Hadid’s ‘Dominion Office Building.’ Each level is slightly offset from the next, producing a disorienting effect when looking down at the stairs from the edge of any of the balconies.

Mirrored Staircase at Kaleidoscope House by Paul Raff Studio

Sometimes, all it takes is a little creativity to produce a stunning effect, rather than a large space and expensive materials. The staircase ascending through Paul Raff Studio’s Kaleidoscope House features mirrored side panels on the balustrade which continue onto the landings of each level, reflecting each other so you can’t quite tell what’s real and what’s reflection. This piece is the heart of the home’s ‘kaleidoscope effect.’

Plywood Puzzle Stairs in London House by Tsuruta Architects

This staircase in a London Home renovated by Tsuruta Architects consists of nearly 2,000 plywood pieces slotted together like a puzzle. Replacing a larger staircase with a more compact design, this new creation connects all four stories without visually obstructing the transitional spaces between them, allowing light to filter through.

Smooth Staircase at Singapore Apple Store by Foster + Partners

It’s not unusual for Apple stores in larger cities to function as showcases for architecture nearly as much as they do for electronics. In this case, internationally renowned firm Foster + Partners augmented “the greenest Apple space yet” with two hand-carved spiraling staircases made of Italian Castagna Stone. The architects describe them as “warm and beautifully sculpted bookends” in an “homage to craftsmanship and materiality.”

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A Few Steps Higher 14 Unusually Artistic Modern Staircase Designs

[ By SA Rogers in Design & Fixtures & Interiors. ]

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Fresh & Modern Showcase: 15 Unusually Beautiful Home Designs

30 May

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These real-life residences go beyond the cool-looking-concept phase to prove how diverse, innovative and unexpected houses can be when architects tailor each one to specific needs and surroundings.

Blooming Origami House by IROJE KHM

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Set on the edge of Seoul’s Bukhansun National Park, this polyhedral structure by IROJE KHM Architects features an angular facade designed to protect two interior courtyards from the eyes of neighbors and passersby so the inhabitants can feel like they live in nature. The roof points mimic the surrounding mountains and transitional spaces planted with grasses and trees make it hard to tell where the outdoor areas end and the interiors begin.

Sky Bridge House by ONG&ONG

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Two separate halves of this dramatic concrete home in Singapore by ONG&ONG are connected by a glass sky bridge, dividing the social areas of the home from the bedrooms. On the ground floor, a courtyard with stone steps dotting a shimmering reflecting pool offer another way from one volume to the next, stretching all the way up to the sky to draw in sunlight.

Transparent Zig-Zag House by Yuusuke Karasawa

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You probably don’t want to live in ’S-House’ by Yuusuke Karasawa unless you don’t mind trucking up and down stairs all day, and don’t really value privacy. This visually stunning and highly unusual modern home design encases a series of zigzagging platforms and stairways in glass, segmenting what would normally be a two-story space into five levels. These mezzanine levels contain all the normal living spaces you’d expect in a fully functional residence. These photos were taken right after its completion, so it would be interesting to see it furnished and in use.

Blobular S-House by SDeG

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It looks like a bunch of space-age modules that got lost on their way to the next Star Trek set got lost and then stacked on top of each other in urban India. SDeG Architects wanted the home to feel as if the inside is cushioned from the harsh elements and noise of the outside, giving it a thickened concrete envelope in a bulbous texture to create a temperature-regulating air gap. The facade also disguises an upper-level swimming pool.

Spiked Sundial House by Daniel Libeskind

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Daniel Libeskind’s 18.36.54 house is named for all of the planes, points and lines of its mirror-finish bronzed stainless steel exterior, which was conceived as a spiraling ribbon. Two jutting pointed extensions create the loook of a sundial when viewed from certain angles, and the reflective surface seems to shift and change every hour and every day of the year as the sun hits it.

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Architecture as Art: 13 Unusually Sculptural Buildings

19 Jan

[ By Steph in Architecture & Public & Institutional. ]

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When fine art and architecture intersect, especially in our modern era of parametric modeling and 3D printing, the results can be strikingly different from the structures that surround them, in some instances seeming like sculptures were given growth serum and expanded to mind-boggling proportions. Eschewing the ordinary, these buildings feel like a chance for architects to flex their creativity and bring some interesting colors and proportions to their settings.

Melbourne Theater Company

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Abstract shapes glow against a solid black mass on the exterior of this striking complex by Ashton Raggat McDougall, making the Melbourne Recital Centre and MTC Theater some of the most visually unique buildings in the city. The black and white color palette is accented by a vibrant red, with the geometric pattern continuing into the interior, looking three-dimensional when viewed from certain angles.

Tschuggen Grand Hotel

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Rising from the Swiss mountainside like shards of ice, architect Mario Botta’s Berg Oase is a sculptural extension of the Tschuggen Grand Hotel. Serving as a wellness center and spa, the arrangement of towering glass wedges bring light streaming into the interior spaces and almost seem like natural structures themselves among the trees and rocks when viewed from afar.

Cloud House

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A house shaped like a cloud? Why not? It may look like the occupants would be severely lacking in privacy, considering the two glazed facades, but this building by Australian firm McBride Charles Ryan is actually an extension to a more conventional street-facing home, and is shielded from neighbors’ views by the curved cloud-mimicking sides.

Suzhou Science & Cultural Arts Centre Facade

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One way to give a building a dramatic makeover (or just ensure that it stand out from the very start) is to add a parametric facade, like the intricate screen covering the massive Suzhou Science and Cultural Arts Centre in China. Developed by Studio 505, the curving screen is shaped like a parabolic moon crescent and consists of a weatherproofing layer and an outer ornamental mesh screen that provides shading.

Palais Bulles

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A classic example of sculptural housing with an aesthetic that’s so outside the norm, it’s almost alien, is Palais Bulles (“Palace of Bubbles.”) Created by architect Antti Lovag in 1989, the curvilinear house is set into a rocky hillside overlooking the Mediterranean Sea in Cannes, France. It’s often used for film festival parties and fashion editorials.

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