BOOK REVIEW
Detail In Contemporary Staircase Design, by Paul Barton
On the opening pages, Paul Barton states that, "If a building could be thought of as the architect's manifesto to construction, then the staircase can be seen as the designer's autograph..." While we are usually brought in as a contractor in the final stages, it would certainly be a fine privilege to be included in the early design process of a home or retail space. While most of our staircases are functional instead of statement pieces, we couldn't agree more with Mr. Barton, that stairs can serve as the exclamation point on a building.
The 39 staircases from around the world selected for this book are captivating and awe inspiring in their own unique way. You'll find staircases made from combinations of wood, metal, glass and concrete amongst the pages. It is broken into the following sections: residential stairs, cultural, retail, offices and hotel stairs. For each stair project, you'll find a page of photographs showing the finished project, followed by about 3 pages of intricate drawings, ranging from the building plans, stairs, and sometimes even cross sections or multiple angles of the project, all labeled with materials, sizes, notes and other specifications.
Some of our favorites are in the Retail section. While these stairs obviously need to serve a purpose, they also feel more branded than some of the other examples. While some (but not all) of the buildings in other sections feel more ordinary, the retails stores that were chosen for this book feel like experiences in and of themselves. The stairs that have been built, usually in the center or a room or store, were clearly crafted as part of the store shopping experience and meant to seamlessly blend into the custom environment while still standing out and drawing attention almost as an art piece.
The layout of everything is very clean and the materials used to produce this hardcover book are heavyweight and high-quality.
As a company that began with welding and has grown into handrails, floating stairs and even glass railings and doors now, we are marveling at the magnitude of this particular staircase that appears to be suspended in midair. Read some specific details below is an excerpt from the Cultural section about a massive glass staircase in Toronto at the Canadian Opera House designed by Diamond Schmitt Architects. This excerpt from Detail In Contemporary Staircase Design is taken from page 96:
Instead of a traditional steel support design, the Grand Staircase relies solely on glass to stretch between levels. This innovative scheme employs large, 40mm (1⅝in.)-thick, triple-laminated glass panels as the primary support. The top and bottom edges of the glass panels are clamped and bolted together using steel plates to secure the sheets, creating a remarkable continuous glass stringer. The edges are clad in a folded stainless steel channel and an internal timber handrail is bracket-fixed to the panels. A similar fixing principle is used at the landing levels to connect the staircase to the floor structure formed from tapering cantilevered steel beams.
The pioneering tread design uses quadruple-laminated glass sheets (three structural leaves topped with a sand blasted decorative top layer). They are supported on concealed stainless steel brackets, connected to the glass balustrade via socket fixings. The double-laminated glass risers are fixed to the brackets in a similar fashion. These illuminated treads and risers are self supporting, spanning an incredible 2061mm (6ft 10in.) between the balustrade panels. The design of this staircase needed to be perfect considering its location as the focal point of the main entrance area. It's daring construction, the distance it travels and it's sheer scale makes this staircase a truly inspiring feat of glass engineering.
