Pattern 158
Open Stairs
Context Rooms to Rent153 · Teenager's Cottage154 · Settled Work156 · Home Workshop157 · Self-Governing Workshops and Offices80 · Small Services Without Red Tape81 · Small Work Groups148 · House for a Small Family76 · House for a Couple77 · House for One Person78 · Pedestrian Street100
Problem
Enclosed interior stairwells in multi-unit buildings connect the floors, but they sever every dwelling's felt connection to the ground and the outdoors. Someone living on an upper floor ends up with almost no relationship to the world outside beyond a window.
Solution
Route stairs that connect several dwellings along the outside of the building, in the open air, so that each household keeps a direct, physical link to the ground through its own stair.
Usage Family of Entrances102 · Roof Garden118 · Sunny Place161 · Stair Seats125 · Staircase Volume195