For our staircase, we wanted it to thread through the three floors of the building with a gap in the middle where each floor could be viewed from each floor. The stair case will entice occupants to visit each floor and create a clear flow through the space.
For our design, we used artist model Francesco Librizzi, Case G, a staircase in Sicily. His design was inspired by Sicily’s beautiful white sand and beaches. He intended to bridge the gap between traditional architectural buildings existing in Sicily and the modern which encourages and makes visitors feel welcome by abandoning the stereotypes that came with its imagery.
http://www.francescolibrizzi.com/casa-g/
First when designing our staircase we decided that e wanted it to be central to the building to make it a main feature. Secondly we have to take into account the building being quite narrow and tall, and how many stairs we could fit in to apply to the NZBC safety restrictions. We looked at this model to figure out the width and height of the stair case being 280mm wide and 190mm high. The open riser style of stair also had a tread limit which had to be abided too.
The materials which the staircase would be made out of were welded steel which would then be spray painted black and rimu wood. We have chosen these materials because the rimu would be repurposed from the original buildings walls and steel is the strongest material to ensure the safety of the stairs.
We built in a square shape around the gap in the floor.
Once the maximum height, width and ange was reached for our stairs we had to design how our stairs would be attached to the building and be structurally safe.
The stairs are attached by a thread of steel which runs from the ceiling, underneath the planks of rimu wood and down to the floor.
Transition 