Residence, Lobith [NL]

EeStairs + Blok Kats van Veen Architects

The next time you walk up a really fabulous designer staircase (which might be one of ours!) ask yourself this question. Where did the design of the stairs actually start?

You’ll probably get an image like this in your mind: you see an architect or interior designer looking at their big screen, mouse-clicking some adjustments on a super-detailed stair design. Then he, or she, hits Save, sits back and reaches for their coffee.

Not quite. EeStairs have made and co-designed hundreds of feature stairs for great designers and clients, including Zaha Hadid, Nike, UNStudio, Akzo Nobel and SOM. Some designers give us highly detailed stair plans. But most do not because they know we are can turn relatively rough design ideas into staircases that are precisely and beautifully crafted in every detail. Here’s a good example. The designers Art-Line specialise in ultra-luxurious interiors, mostly for hotels and boats. They recently sent us these sketches (and a few measurements) for two linked staircases in a house at Houberg in The Netherlands.

As you can see, the sketches are fairly basic. And we knew straight away that there are some serious design challenges. For example, how do you connect rough-sawn wood to smooth, accurately sawn stair-treads? How do you attach the outer end of the treads to the solid steel balustrade seamlessly, without any supports? And what about the curved glass balustrade on the landing? But Art-Line already knew that our materials specialists, technologists and craftsmen can answer these questions, and EeStairs are now turning their approximate designs into super-accurate three-dimensional reality.