March 3, 2017

8 Simply Amazing Spiral Staircases

These spiral staircases, ranging from sculptural to serpentine, redefine our notion of vertical movement. For more inspiration, check out our dramatic staircases board on Pinterest.

1. CBRE Office by Gensler


 

At CBRE’s Glendale office by Gensler, the company maintains a “free address” policy, giving the company’s 125 employees free rein to sit where they please. Inviting vertical flow between the four levels, including expanded mezzanines, that now compose the 25,000 square feet are various staircases. One, a nautilus-like construction, spirals upward to connect the three lower levels.

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2. Ampersand by Paul Cocksedge Studio


 

Paul Cocksedge Studio harnessed sunlight—a departure for the Ingo Maurer protégé’s signature lamps—for an energy-infused office project in London. The stair spirals upward 40 feet, with twists offering built-in benches, a small library, and a balustrade garden containing six species of plants.

3. Yanmar by Gensler Tokyo

A steel staircase painted the company’s signature chili red spirals through eight floors at Yanmar in Osaka, Japan by Gensler Tokyo.

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4. Hotel Seamarq by Richard Meier & Partners Architects


 

Hotel Seamarq, Richard Meier’s first large-scale commission to encompass both architecture and interiors (not to mention his first project in South Korea) occupies a distinctive parallelogram structure. Curves entire the picture with the main staircase, a swirl of snow-white Venetian plaster with oiled oak treads, that descends to the restaurant level’s entry gallery. 

5. Somerset House by Eva Jiricna Architects


 

Eva Jiricna turned to cutting-edge UHPC (ultra high performance concrete) to fabricate an elegant spiral staircase in London’s landmarked Somerset House. The final product’s carefree delicacy—molded UHPC treads swirl around an airy filigree steel tube—belies the process, described by Jiricna as a live experiment. “We had to work out all the calculations and tolerances from scratch,” she explains.

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6. Hyundai Capital by Gensler

The European headquarters of Hyundai Capital encompassed three H-shaped floors lacking internal connection—what better way for Gensler to aggrandize the 37,000-square-foot interior than with a nautilus stair almost dead center? Attaining both literal and figurative lightness was a structural challenge. Two layers of 1/4-inch steel, pressed together and welded, form the stair walls, and the inner glow of pristine Thassos marble treads and risers is augmented by an LED ribbon within the handrail.

7. Carturesti Bookstore by Square One Architecture


 

Poetic notions aside, the Carturesti Bookstore by Square One Architecture has a sense of motion that relies, pragmatically, on the vertical circulation provided by four staircases. The ground level links to the mezzanine via two spiral staircases in white-painted steel—the same color as the 19th-century art nouveau building’s original structural columns.

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8. Los Angeles House by Belzberg Architects; Curated


 


 

Hagy Belzberg has a knack for staircases—usually, they hold the throne as the pièce de résistance in his projects. This massive 12,000-square-foot Los Angeles residence he designed with Delta Wright is no exception. Rising through the core of the house, an asymmetrical spiral staircase “goes from skinny to fat, narrow to wide,” Belzberg explains. Every strip of European white oak cladding the spiral was hand-cut and hand-laid, and the balustrades are clear glass bent with heat.

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