Week 2-3- Stairs

Having never considered the effect a well designed staircase can have on a space, I found the task of designing stairs for our models to be a really eye-opening and interesting one.

My first set of stairs I designed to give a sense of unity as one moves from above to below ground. The four branches reach down to a common goal and people on different spiral arms can still feel united as they will come together in the end. Spiral staircases interest me through the fluidity that they portray in their shape, as oppose to more conventional straight stairs.

The second set of stairs, for above ground use, gives more power to the user. The randomly positioned steps makes the user choose what path they wish to take- making the experience customised.

My final stairs play on transparency, so that they don't hinder the view of the space. From the right view, they are also meant to mimic a spiral or helix shape. Initially, there was a translucent wall in the middle so that the stairs appear to cantilever off it, but actually cantilever from steel beams below. However when the stairs were positioned in the model, I decided to remove the wall.

Fourth stair design

The third staircase also uses a customised path, with a thicker material and shape selection to suit an underground staircase leading to a heavier space (with the keyword 'Cell')

Original section for second model

My second section that I developed is shown below, with the staircases in progress.

Above ground- Ai Weiwei - 'Push'

Below Ground - Louise Bourgeois - 'Cell'

The materials I have chosen more accurately reflect the rendering style used  in my hand-drawn section. Above the datum, I wanted a delicate and/or transparent material. In the sketchup model, the top 'roof' part is my own material tile for "Transparency". There will be a closer image in my next post on materials. All the horizontal elements in the above-ground studio have tiles, as they softly reflect light and, in my opinion, give more light to a space. I chose such light materials to reflect what I believe suits Ai Weiwei. Being a human rights activist, the open and light-generous spaces should represent freedom, something I believe he would want seeing as he is imprisoned often for his openly critical opinions. The open spaces also importantly accommodate for Weiwei's large-scale artworks, such as will be seen in the final model.

Below ground is my allocated studio for Louise Bourgeois. This space is broken into smaller spaces by custom columns which also serve to support the roof. The materials will be of heavy concrete or stone, to reflect the dark nature of this artists work. There is a variety of large and small spaces to accommodate Louise's different artworks. The hexagon stairs (half-developed in the image) are clad with a custom texture of the word "Solid".