Incredibly Creative Stairs by Atmos Studio
Manufacturing technology has finally caught up to imagination and digital rendering. These extreme sets of staircases represent unique, asymmetrical works of functional art – each is installed in an actual London home, but based on three-dimensional computer modeling and created using laser-cut materials.
If you feel a bit dizzy, just reach out for the handrail…wait, that might not work either. Everything about these designs by architect Alex Haw of Atmos is warped, bent and twisted, from the treads and risers up through the balusters and banisters.
For instance, as seen above:
“These stairs for a residential project (Sensualscaping) took us in an important new direction, harnessing digital production and fabrication to form a seamless and deeply sculptural experience. This page documents a component that we felt was rich enough in detail to merit further exploration and explanation.”
“The stair is a continuation and intensification of the simple graphic skirting board lines that trace their way through the house. As they turn the corner into the stair void, they expand like a genie released from a lamp, curling and separating and bifurcating from the wall to form the delicate edge of the stair treads, lifting into the air to rise as the veil of the balustrade. This veil hangs gently from above as a series of thin paired threads, softly pulled back at the entry to allow movement past, gently splaying around the corner to meet and carry the arriving visitor onwards & upwards.”
The white stairs and supporting elements seen above were fabricated digitally, printed in flat-pack form from MDF (with some metal accessories) then slotted back together on site – a task that would be impossibly time-consuming to try and do by hand.
More than merely a bridge between floors, each of these fluid, sculptural stairwells works as a connector between the interior and exterior of the home and supplemental seating as well as a filter for light and central decorative element – a curved accent in otherwise square spaces.
