Unusual stairs

By definition, a staircase is a building structure that connects different levels of a room or terrain, allowing a person to climb or descend, placing his feet not on an inclined plane, but on level steps, which increases the convenience of such movement and its safety. However, not only this (and sometimes not this) function can be performed by stairs. Or, on the contrary, the same task can be solved by products that are completely different from a classic staircase (for example, various lifts or, say, a fireman’s pole).

First of all, the appearance of the staircase depends on which points it connects: the floors of a crowded room or the floor with a second tier bed, leads to a gentle hillock in the garden or vertically to the attic. It is the purpose that mainly determines the size, material and the very structure of the stairs. They are also influenced by the contingent of users for whom the staircase is mainly intended: in addition to ordinary “average” people, it can be children, disabled people, even animals. In addition, the strongest imprint is imposed by the aesthetic requirements that exist (to a greater or lesser extent) in the creation of any design. In the end, these requirements can become the main and only ones, that is, the staircase will only perform decorative functions..

Perhaps the most common are marching stairs. But even they turn into something unique if, for example, glass is chosen as a material (and even with colored illumination), or when the steps can fold, merging into a smooth exit, or, say, when a kind of decorative staircase (but quite normal in size and form) leads nowhere, as if proclaiming the victory of aesthetics in the fight against common sense…

Screw, stringetc. stairs initially imply originality and special design. Their very design contributes to the implementation of the most unthinkable ideas. The use of appropriate materials and shapes makes it easy to fit them into the interior of any style – be it techno or baroque.

Very unusual designs come across among the mansard (internal attic) stairs. Their main feature is that they are removed (they are too rarely used so that the staircase constantly occupies living space), but at the same time they are quickly and easily put on alert. The whole mass of such mechanisms can be divided into 3 main groups: fully sliding into the attic (the simplest, but requiring enough space on it), sliding (like firefighters) and folding “accordion”. The last two options, although more complicated in design, are interesting in that their largest section (when the others are pushed in or folded into it) can also serve as an attic hatch – conveniently and economically.

A special section should include garden ladders (and others for open areas). As a rule, they perform decorative functions (it is quite possible to do without them, and even interfere with transport) and are therefore present only on expensive sites, well-equipped to the highest level. Any hilly or sloping area can be leveled (if used for growing potatoes). But in the presence of funds and taste, unevenness should, on the contrary, be accentuated, emphasized with the help of stairs. They can have only two or three low steps (connecting, for example, the levels of the main garden path and a gazebo or a terrace and a fountain), but they will immediately give the garden volume, three-dimensionality.

Often there are transformations of functions of the same ladder. For example, there was a decorative “to nowhere”, on which (in artistic disorder) pots of flowers and bookshelves were located. After the acquisition of new furniture and major repairs, a false ceiling was made from it, spotlights on which shine at angles of +45 and -45 degrees due to the stepped shape.

Another case. The external attached (but fixed permanently) staircase to the attic has lost its relevance: they made a beautiful internal attic. But no one is going to dismantle it on the street either: grapes twist along it beautifully, it has become decorative.

Or, in general, the birth of a whole “sculptural ensemble”. It began with the fact that the little puppy could not climb onto the porch (one step about 25cm high). They arranged for him a miniature wooden (about a quarter of the porch width) ladder, splitting this height into 4 steps. It turned out to be so beautiful and so perfectly fit into the interior of the porch and veranda that even after the dogs grew up they did not ruin it, but also attached a smaller copy of the house (thus stylizing the booth). The result is a kind of “nested space”, as in the mirror opposite the mirror or on the monitor showing the image of the camera filming this monitor … Looks amazing. Now, if there is free time, the ensemble is gradually supplemented with details (also copying reality) – a micro-well, micro-trees near the house, etc..

It should be remembered that the same tasks can be solved in a variety of ways, and the most ordinary objects, with imagination and artistic taste, can be turned into real works of art..