Stairs and Balustrades

Above - Rosalie Gascoigne
Below - Tracy Moffatt













Final SketchUp Model









Above Ground Studio Stairs - Rosalie Gascoigne

Cantilevered staircase.









I have decided not to put in balustrades in this particular set of stairs. As this studio was designed based upon the word "care", I believe that Gascoigne or anybody else wanted to go from the exhibition space to her studio would need to take care while walking up these stairs. The highest tread is 954mm wide which is wide enough for somebody to safely walk up stairs without balustrades.


Section, Front View of cantilevered staircase.


















Below Ground Studio Stairs - Tracy Moffatt
Constructing stairs in SketchUp










I decided to incorporate the stairs as part of the architecture of the studio. I wanted to give a sense that these stairs were heavy. I achieved this by make the studio and the staircase out of concrete slabs. The balustrades are made of steel to allow the staircase to maintain its "heaviness". At first I didn't want to add any railings as I believed the staircase would lose its heavy image but I looked up many concrete staircases and found that the majority of them had some sort of metal balustrades.

Section of heavy stairs















As Moffatt's studio was based on the word "detour" I decided to add another set of heavy stairs on the other side of the studio to allow another pathway out of her studio to get into the exhibiton space; hence the word detour. I only incorporated one balustrade on the left side of this staircase and not a pair. This is because this particular staircase is not as wide as the one above and it seemed a bit cramped to place one on either side.

As you can see there is a platform at the end of this set of stairs and as you walk along you will find yourself at another set of cantilevered stairs which looks very similar to the ones in Gascoigne's studio. I wanted to add this set of stairs here so that when a person is leaving Moffatt's studio, they would recognise that they are making the transition from Moffatt's studio into the exhibition space.
Constructing the cantilevered stairs.










The balustrades made of glass reinforces that you must begin to take "care".
















Leads straight into exhibition space