Whistles Boutique Staircase Balustrade,
St Christopher's Place, London
St Christopher's Place, London
A staircase with no diagonal lines was our brief, which was an attempt to enhance the verticality of the central void in these spaces with relatively low headroom. Our solution was to cantilever from an existing wall a series of mild steel plates , stiffened by vertical webs of bright steel to obtain very sharp edges to the form. Timber treads were then overlaid onto the steel. In designing the structure of the treads we deliberately tried to tune the stiffness of each tread to give a slight bounce to the stair, which was a success and resulted in giving the appearance of depressed piano keys as people walked on the structure.
The design brief asked for a balustrade to be as simple as possible, preferably with minimal structural lines. This led directly to a design using sheets of toughened glass spanning between floors, with a hand rail bolted directly to the glass.
Architect Stanton Williams
