Stairs aren’t just a boring, utilitarian part of our homes and public buildings. They’re an opportunity for an architect to really make a statement and do something bold and distinctive. From staircases that float to stairs that fit in impossibly tiny spaces to staircases that go nowhere, this often-overlooked part of everyday architecture is being rethought by many designers and architects. You’ll see no beige-carpeted run-of-the-mill staircases here; these are some (more!) of the best, strangest, and most beautiful staircases in the world.

Lello Bookshop Stairs

These majestic and impressive stairs can be found in Lello Bookshop in Portugal. The sheer heft of this staircase is balanced nicely by the smooth flow of all of its shapes. The grand staircase begins as two sets of steps on the upper level, then the two become one when the entire staircase folds under itself to glide smoothly to the lower floor. The color and sturdy dimensions give the entire staircase an almost mouth-like appearance.

Steel Ribbon Staircase

This incredible design, believe it or not, is made from 10mm thick sheet metal, and there are no hidden suspensions keeping it aloft; just wall brackets and tension. The ribbon of sheet metal zigzags up the space to make the exposed staircase appear open, airy and mysterious. And best of all, the whole staircase is surprisingly sturdy. Designed by HSH Architects, the staircase is in the main living area of a home in Prague.

Umschreibung (Rewriting)

This crazy staircase to nowhere was commissioned by accounting firm KPMG in Munich in 2004. It was built by artist Olafur Eliasson and now stands in the courtyard of the KPMG building. Besides being an interesting focal point, it’s a functional staircase – if you consider traveling its pointless path “functional.” Although the stairs won’t actually get you anywhere, it’s probably a fun lunchtime break for the people who work in the building.

1M2 Stairs

For hopelessly tiny spaces where traditional stairs would take up too much precious floor real estate, EeDesign has a solution. These stairs fit into just over 1 meter of floor space to provide a passage to higher ground that’s basically like walking up a spiral ladder. They come in many colors and can be customized to fit each unique home and space.

The Gray Hotel Floating Stairs

The Gray Hotel in Milan is a stunning modern building designed by Florence architect Guido Ciompi. There are countless things to love about the building and its furnishings, but these floating stairs stand out. Obviously, one would need to be very careful when ascending them after a night of drinking, but their clean lines and unique design are unforgettable.

Staircase Slide

London architect Alex Michaelis may have discovered the quickest way to get the kids to come down for dinner: let them slide down. Alex let his kids have some input as to what features they wanted in the house he was building, and the staircase slide was one of them. It may not be the most practical design ever, but when the kids are happy, everyone’s happy.

Wheelchair-Accessible Stairs

For everyone who has ever gotten around in a wheelchair or pushed around a baby stroller, you know how frustrating it is to encounter a building with stairs and no ramp. Almost as bad are the steep, poorly-designed ramps that were simply tacked on later. The McCormick Tribune Campus Center in Chicago made a stylish compromise between stairs and ramp with this staircase that incorporates a zig-zagging ramp with the stairs. Of course, it looks like it might take more energy making all of those twists and turns than it would to just go up an ordinary ramp, but aesthetically it’s very sharp.

Floating Stairs

Unlike other floating stairs, this staircase by Bernstein Architecture doesn’t rely on wall brackets to support the steps. Instead, it uses a network of cables to hold each one aloft and completely motionless. According to the architect, the stairs don’t move even a little when they’re stepped on, even though they’re subject to very heavy traffic in their home inside the There TV office in Chicago.

Bookcase Box Stairs

While such a precarious-looking alternating tread stair design would probably never pass building code in America, this ingenious bookshelf staircase makes very good use of a small space. It comes from Czech architects Adam Jirkal, Jerry Koza and Tomáš Kalhous and resides in a house they remodeled in Všenory, Czech Republic.

Wall Stairs

When are stairs more like a door? When they glide smoothly into the wall, disappearing to prevent unwanted guests from wandering up to your home’s upper level. Though it’s just a concept, this disappearing staircase from designer Aaron Tang would be the perfect addition to any international spy’s house. It operates on interior pistons that drive the whole assembly out from the wall, then help each stair lower gently in a wave-like motion. The touch of a button opens or closes the stairs from either end of the staircase.

Villa Glittenberg Floating Stairs

These stairs reside in Villa Glittenberg, a family home on the west coast of Norway built by Saunders Architecture. The staircase is made of 1 cm-thick steel and weighs close to one metric ton. It is so massive that it had to be lifted into the home through a skylight with a special crane. The results are simply stunning, though, as the white stairs hovers above the ground and the residents seem to float up to the upper level.

Hidden Staircase Storage

Martino Gamper produces consistently elegant and distinctive custom furniture, and this under-staircase storage drawer system is a testament to his ability. In this beautiful English country home, Gamper installed an ingenious hidden storage staircase to give the occupants more room for storage and to use up some previously forgotten wasted space.

16th Ave Tiled Stairs

In the summer of 2005, the residents of the Golden Gates Heights neighborhood banded together to make a unique and long-lasting public art project: the 16th Avenue Tiled Steps. The risers of all 163 stairs (on city property) were decorated with mosaics that neighborhood volunteers assembled. The resulting mural is absolutely breathtaking, covering images from deep in the sea to high in the sky.

Wooden Library Stairs

These wooden library stairs are rich, full of character, and absolutely beautiful. The slats are made from spalted white birch and they were all cut from the same log. The cherry tree in the center is real, and it goes through the ceiling to emerge on the upper floor as the staircase’s newel post. The steel supports and mahogany handrails just add to the luxurious feeling of this amazing staircase.

Musical Stairs

Although it was only a temporary installation, these piano stairs deserve a mention based solely on the number of smiles they induced. The Fun Theory is a campaign from Volkswagen that’s focused on bringing a smile to everyday life. When they installed this piano keyboard in a Swedish train station, many more people than usual decided to take the stairs. The unexpected larger-than-life toy brought out the inner child of a lot of people during its short life.

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What do Bill Clinton, Bruce Lee, Charlemagne and Jack Kervorkian have in common? They’ve all been made into custom historical LEGO mini-figures by LEGO artist Jamie Spencer. Spencer, also known as Morgan190, created an incredible collection of historical figures for the 2007 Fine Clonier Historical Figure Contest.

Each historical “minifig”, as these LEGO creations are called, had to be made only from official LEGO elements for the contest – hence, Spencer explains, the “Conan O’Brien hair” seen on many of them, and the Harry Potter scar on John Lennon’s forehead.

The figures range from the obscure  – like Charaka, the founder of Ayurveda (Indian Medicine) – to ubiquitous modern personalities like Donald Trump.

Spencer, a longtime LEGO enthusiast who spent untold hours building with them as a child, cites the Space and Castles lines as his favorite LEGO themes.

Spencer’s other LEGO minifigs often have dark sci-fi themes, and he has also created a few ornate steampunk designs. Asked by BuySteampunk.com where he gets his parts from, Spencer replied, “I don’t necessarily limit my collection to any one of LEGO’s lines so I happily pull accessories and parts from wherever will work.”

“The source of minifig parts ranges anywhere from Indiana Jones to Castle. One of the greatest aspects of LEGO is that it’s all interchangeable!”

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Steampunk, folks seem to love it or to hate it. C’mon, you gotta admit the guns and guitars are cool. Rust, steam, copper tubing, clockwork gears, gauges, and brass-coated coolness appeal to the rebel in us all. Steampunk is a vision of the future as seen through the eyes of the past. Depending how you feel about shredding or shooting, this beautifully crafted blend of form and function, these pseudo-Victorian mechanical “steampunk” style guns and guitars should make you smile…or perhaps drool?  Here are sexy as sin and amazing modifications of contemporary technologies to fit the aesthetic of Steampunk guns and guitars.

Abney Park Guitar

(image credits:nullalux,porkshanks)

Abney Park is a Seattle band influenced by Steampunk. Nathaniel Johnstone plays a guitar for Abney Park and influenced many Steampunk enthusiasts to do more than listen to, sing along, or dance to their music. Brass, gold, knobs, and clockwork gears are blended into a functioning fashion of fantasy where past and future mix into this guitar.

Steampunk Guitar – Villianizer

(image credit:Rob Lee)

This is a Jackson Rhoads V custom rebuilt guitar into a steampunk look. With a name like Villianizer, you know it’s wicked slick and can pull some cool tricks. All the fittings are brass and copper, with copper-plated hardware and pickups, gauges, gears, pipes, welds, and a bucket of fake rust. Cyberpunks, musicians, geeks who surf from the chair, many of us heard tales of the dastardly looking Villianizer long ago. It’s still sweet though. But how does it sound?

Have a listen to The Villianizer.

Organum Insolitus

(image credit:Metropolis Music)

This custom steampunk guitar, Organum Insolitus, was built for the 2008 Jersey City Artists Studio Tour. Designed using elements of steampunk, Organum Insolitus incorporates clockwork gears, hand hammered brass, cloth wire and wood to show an alternate historical glimpse of a 19th century electric guitar. The guitar features a television with Fresnel lens magnifier, an onboard phaser and amplifier. Rather than use multiple pickups, the one humbucker can be repositioned with the red faucet handle. The television, guitar, effects and amplifier can all be patched through to each other in any configuration using the patch bay on the front of the guitar. The pickup or television can also be outputted through a standard 1/4″ cable to an external amplifier.

Steampunk Guitar Norwescon 32

(image credit:deviant art,djwudi)

This handcrafted masterpiece, The Elder Bass Guitar, was created by Molly “Porkshanks” Friedrich. Porkshanks writes, “I am honored to have been involved with creating art for the bands Abney Park, Mungus, The Georgetown Orbits, and musician Michael ‘Creature.’ Steampunk creators that you know best.” She is also a featured artist at the Museum Exhibition of Steampunk Art, which recently opened and will run continually through February 21, 2010.

Steampunked Guitars

(image credit:deviant art,r3v II cls,deviant art,deviant art)

The beloved musical weaponized beast at the top is named the Victorian Axe Cannon. On the top right is the Steampunk Hero. From Maker Faire 2008, and pictured on the bottom left are two more steampunk guitars. The Les Paul on the bottom right was tweaked and modded with gauges, copper, brass and rust into an aesthetically pleasing steampunk-style guitar.

Steampunk Guitar Maker Faire 2008

(image credit:octopurpl)

What we like or don’t like is all about personal point of view. Here is another guitar created with gears and steampunk bling. It was on display at Maker Faire, snapped at this angle to give you a different perspective. Maker Faire is an amazing event where engineering savvy and childlike whimsy overlap as scores of techies, crafters, artists, and visionaries gather in an imaginative playground. Tinkerers and backyard experimenters interact in a massive show-and-tell and do-it-yourself steampunk extravaganza.

The Nautilus Steampunk Guitar

(image credits:gizmodo)

This modded masterpiece, The Nautilus, was inspired by the film 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. The retrofuturistic design of the Nautilus includes copper pipes, shell topped knobs, and a cool flickering plasma effect porthole at its base. Sadly, the creator had to part with his creation. This custom built steampunk guitar gained public attention when it was sold on Ebay.

Here is the The Nautilus in action.

More Steampunk Guitars

(image credits:deviant art,,basmatiheather,Brian the Killer Penguin,veev)

Steampunk is popular with people in the punk, goth, Industrial, cybergoth, gamer, and geek subcultures. So popular, in fact, there is a growing movement towards steampunk as a lifestyle and culture. It has been around in other forms and other names since the sci-fi subgenre of Jules Verne and H.G. Wells. Here are more guitars with a Neo-Victorianism theme. Pictured at top left is The Blackwind. The top right steampunk guitar can be found on display outside a shop in Austin, Texas. The two steampunk guitars on the bottom are re-engineered Statocasters made for Maker Faire.

DIY Steampunk Guitars

(image credit:thumbrella,ellie guitars two,tyler savage,myles paul)

If you have a passion for guitars and music, then perhaps you too would like to get in on the action with a DIY steampunk guitar. The top left guitars are metal clad and steampunked by their creator to his degree of satisfaction. In the top right photo, you see a steampunk pipebomb guitar heart made with a Basswood body, patina paint, hardware, and surplus store supplies all over it. On the middle left, cyberpunk and rebellion produced this Steampunk guitar. The bottom guitar was built by one friend for another, both steampunk fans. Each guitar is a one-of-a-kind creation and there is still plenty of time before the holidays to DIY a steampunk guitar for you or a loved one.

Steampunk guns

(image credits:4 blogspot,amanda.scrivenerdeviant art,makezine,kordite)

If you are into guns, then you will probably love these. If not, then think sci-fi blended with the Victorian era. The sawed-off shotgun is from Steamgearlab, a Lilith shotgun and prop for a steampunk movie. On the top left, this little weapon is meant to represent Burlesque Steampunk or Apocalyptic bullet belt garters. On the right are gunblades, a style of gun often found in the steampunk culture. The bottom left photo is of a steampunk sonic rifle. On the bottom right, the Howdah pistol was produced by sawing the stock off a shotgun, then more or less of a hack job to the barrel.

Steampunk Revolvers

(image credits:deviant art)

All of the guns above are considered steampunk-style revolvers or pistols. From the retrofuturistic outlaw pistol to the the gentleman’s revolver, the only limit to creating these steampunk props are your imagination. Get ready to shoot ‘em up like a cowboy from the past time-traveling to the future. Although not steam-powered, these weapons may be powered by the souls of the enemies you cut down. Watch out for steampunk enthusiasts, whether with a stone cold heart of ice or just having some good ole-fashioned fun, who could draw and “shoot” in a blink of an eye.

Ray Guns

(image credits:tinkerbots,herrdokters)

If you like retrofuturistic sidearms, check out these ray guns. Tinkerbot seems an expert in pure Jules Verne creations, making weapons for an imaginary universe. Some of these collectible fantasy weapons include the Zenith which would take only one electro blast for piercing destruction. On the top right, wow, the toggle switch, gauges and other little gizmows from an old lamp would make short work of your enemies. Or lock and load the Sanitzer. Not sure what kind of death follows after a ray coming from the Pneumatic Aether Disperser, but it’s probably not a pretty sight. Herr Dokters created the bottom right ray gun and some of his other creations are to be on display at the Museum of Oxford Steampunk Art Exhibition.

Deadly Steampunk Guns

(image credits:salacioushydes,outa_spaceman,impulse labs,dr haggis,jmars design,Brandon McCullar,SteamPunk Creator)

Beware scoundrels and villians! From left to right, all of these steampunk guns are seriously wicked weapons, like the top Pirate Net Gun. Do not tick off the owner of Viper, a pneumatic machine gun. What mechanically inclined and avid pistoleer wouldn’t mind the fine company of a refined automatic revolver with an old world charm like the Mateba Unica? The Blunderbassoon has a forty watt range and is a weapon from a more civilized age. The large barrel is a single barrel N2O Blunderbuss. Whether or not you can tell from the bottom left photo, this steampunk sculpture art is a metal rifle ray gun that is 36″ long and 13.5″ tall. But it was the Annihilator that ranked as the judge’s favorite choice of shoulderarm with it’s indicator light and a range of over 550 meters.

Specialty Steampunk Guns

(image credits:Astra Goblin,CHAUSS513,CHAUSS513,outland armour,porkshanks)

If you run across a steampunk enthusiast with one of these guns, be prepared to surrender or to die! The photo on top is a massive steampunk ray gun. It’s unknown if the owner has it setup as a steampunk prop or as a working secret weapon. The top left picture is of the Double Twelve. It’s 10 feet long and a .12 gauge even if it appears to be capable of shooting planes out of the sky. The steampunk shotgun on the right weighs in at 65 pounds! Sure the enemy would be dead, if you could heft that sucker and fire it in time. On the bottom left are shiny and classy steampunk Flintlock Saber pistols.  On the bottom right, Deuces Wild are a destructive set of twins named Veracity and Florencia.

Indeed, steampunk culture and art seems to be everywhere. We hope you enjoyed these sexy as sin steampunk guns -n- gutars.

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What do stormtroopers do on their days off? Feed bread to gigantic pigeons, jam out on Guitar Hero, catch fish in a toilet and send vaguely insulting emails to Luke Skywalker, according to these photos by Stefan Le Du.

The amateur photographer is shooting daily photos of stormtrooper action figures posed in various scenarios, either performing everyday tasks or recreating famous film scenes, for a project called Stormtroopers 365.

Several miniseries within the series follow themes, like “D’oh!”, wherein one of the stormtroopers repeatedly gets himself into trouble whether getting his head stuck in a bottle or finding himself upside-down in a box. Another, “Not the Droid”, has the stormtroopers running into Wall-E, Calculon and others while searching for C3PO.

But don’t for a second imagine that they don’t have important tasks to get up to, like “Getting rid of swine flu, one pig at a time.”

See the whole series on Stefan’s Flickr page.

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By now, we’re all used to seeing graffiti and public art in urban and suburban settings. We’re so used to it, in fact, that we typically walk right by without giving it a second glance. But would you be able to ignore graffiti if it were done in a medium or a method you’d never seen before? These 11 innovative artists are stepping up the standards for graffiti and public art by doing it in ways we don’t usually see, but just might notice. Some of them are pure brilliance and sure to catch the attention of even the most jaded city-dweller.

Buff Diss

If you saw Buff Diss‘ work on the street, you might be inclined to think it was paint. But the crisp, clean, bold lines give it away: he works in sticky tape. The Australian artist uses masking tape and electrical tape to lay his images down over streets, walls and windows, making it at once 3D and part of the urban landscape. He’s shown his unusual graffiti style in galleries, but his street art is what’s really amazing. It’s definitely got a graffiti flavor to it, but it also has a decidedly playful feel.

Poster Boy NYC

If you’ve taken the subway in New York in the last couple of years, you’ve probably seen some of Poster Boy’s work. He’s an anti-consumerist guerrilla artist, meaning that he takes the advertisement posters that are so prevalent in subway stations, uses a razor blade to liberate their components, and rearranges them into new messages. He’s been called New York’s answer to Banksy, though his pieces seem more pointed and anti-consumerist than Banksy’s. He’s said that there will be no capitalizing on his newly-found fame; no books or gallery shows are in the works. It’s rumored that Poster Boy isn’t a single person, but rather a subculture movement fueled by the work of many. We may never know the truth, but Poster Boy’s work is inspiring the New Yorkers (and Internet denizens) who see it to think twice about ubiquitous advertising. Visit his Flickr stream to truly appreciate the genius behind his subversive poster reorganizations.

Jim Denevan

Drawing in the sand may not seem to have much in common with graffiti. But Jim Denevan’s intricate and organic sand drawings take hours to complete, require great skill, and are even more impermanent than spray paint on a wall. He may not have to hurry or work in darkness for fear of getting caught, but Denevan’s California sand drawings get back to the heart of public art: creating something for everyone to enjoy and asking for nothing in return. He does his drawings free-hand with a large piece of found driftwood, using no measuring devices of any kind, and they are so large-scale that viewing them effectively from the ground isn’t always possible – almost like sand-based crop circles. He’s been known to walk as much as 30 miles in the production of just one piece.

Benoit Lemoine

With so many street artists taking themselves ever so seriously, it’s good to see one who seems like a prankster at heart. French artist Benoit Lemoine created this zipper tape so that he could add zippers to whatever public spaces were lacking zippers. Imagine what you could do with a big roll of industrial-strength urban zipper. While we’re sure police wouldn’t be thrilled about long strips of tape appearing on every surface imaginable, the tape is presumably removable, making it an impermanent but completely fun form of graffiti.

Posterchild

Posterchild does, as the name implies, work with posters and stencils – but those are nothing new. Some of his most distinctive work has been the planter boxes he built and installed in unused flyer boxes, newspaper boxes, and telephone booths. His unique form of guerrilla gardening uses existing unused structures that are otherwise simply wasted space. He plants flowers and trees in them, turning them into something beautiful and unexpected. His most well-known – and most imitated – project, though, is the Super Mario Brothers Blocks he constructed and hung around Windsor, Ontario in 2005.  The Canadian artist has a ton of other public art projects on his website that are definitely worth a look.

Color Me Katie and Googly Eye Cru

Even the staunchest of public art opponents couldn’t argue that these googly eyes do anything but cause smiles. Engineered by the always-adorable photographer and street artist Color Me Katie, these eyes, with a bit of tape on the back, were put onto random objects to give them instant personality and charm.

We don’t know if Color Me Katie is involved with the Googly Eye Cru, but they, like her, work in Brooklyn and enjoy slapping adorable eyes onto otherwise-mundane objects. Their extensive photographs prove that they’ve eyeballed just about everything with a flat surface.

Sam3

Sam3 is a Spanish artist whose gigantic silhouette graffiti has been seen all around Europe and in South America. His incredible graffiti has been well-loved for a long time, but his cardboard sculptures are just as amazing. These installations in London, Sao Paulo and Murcia are all made of cardboard and all use public spaces to illustrate the social problems of over-surveillance and homelessness.

D. Billy

D. Billy’s irreverent art reminds us all to be just a little more playful in our daily lives. His “site interventions” involve putting colorful tape, cardboard and even balloons into the dull urban landscape. Spelling out onomatopoeia or just making something ugly into something fun, his public art is impermanent but definitely draws second looks and laughter all over Brooklyn.

Jeremy Novy

To Milwaukee artist Jeremy Novy, public art is about using public spaces to send a message. He understands that the typical art gallery visitor is educated and wealthy, but the majority of the population may never intentionally seek out art. He creates public works that make his city a better place to live while bringing a bit of the arts to everyone, regardless of income or background. Seeing problems such as abandoned telephone booths and boarded up buildings, he created solutions involving overlaying pictures on the disused objects.

SpY

The streets of Madrid have seen SpY’s graffiti and public art around since the 1980s. His work has run the gamut from simple graffiti to the complicated repurposing (and reinstallation) of street signs and public bike racks. His goal is to break the monotony of urban dwellers and bring a moment of laughter into an otherwise ordinary day.

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