Stairs are inherently utilitarian, but some architects choose to really step up their interiors with highly sculptural designs that make you want to walk up and down a bunch of times. Cantilevered creations, floating stairs, spirals made of stone and zig-zagging graphic designs add both literal and figurative movement to these apartments, museums, offices and shops.

Stone and Wire in London by Groupwork + Amin Taha

During the completion of a renovation on a terraced house in central London dating to the 1950s, Groupwork + Amin Taha created a gorgeous centerpiece with this stone staircase, spiraling around a central cylinder-shaped wire cage, which acts as a balustrade. The load-bearing cantilevered travertine staircase extends from the basement to a skylight in the apartment’s roof.

Atrium Stairs at Moscow’s Dominion Office Building by Zaha Hadid

There’s something very futuristic-looking about the stark, graphic black-and-white stairs zig-zagging through the atrium of Zaha Hadid’s ‘Dominion Office Building.’ Each level is slightly offset from the next, producing a disorienting effect when looking down at the stairs from the edge of any of the balconies.

Mirrored Staircase at Kaleidoscope House by Paul Raff Studio

Sometimes, all it takes is a little creativity to produce a stunning effect, rather than a large space and expensive materials. The staircase ascending through Paul Raff Studio’s Kaleidoscope House features mirrored side panels on the balustrade which continue onto the landings of each level, reflecting each other so you can’t quite tell what’s real and what’s reflection. This piece is the heart of the home’s ‘kaleidoscope effect.’

Plywood Puzzle Stairs in London House by Tsuruta Architects

This staircase in a London Home renovated by Tsuruta Architects consists of nearly 2,000 plywood pieces slotted together like a puzzle. Replacing a larger staircase with a more compact design, this new creation connects all four stories without visually obstructing the transitional spaces between them, allowing light to filter through.

Smooth Staircase at Singapore Apple Store by Foster + Partners

It’s not unusual for Apple stores in larger cities to function as showcases for architecture nearly as much as they do for electronics. In this case, internationally renowned firm Foster + Partners augmented “the greenest Apple space yet” with two hand-carved spiraling staircases made of Italian Castagna Stone. The architects describe them as “warm and beautifully sculpted bookends” in an “homage to craftsmanship and materiality.”

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A Few Steps Higher 14 Unusually Artistic Modern Staircase Designs

Moving way beyond the psychedelic hippie aesthetics of head shops, modern marijuana dispensaries often look more like luxury hotel lobbies, high-end speakeasies and Apple Stores. As more states within the U.S. legalize medical and recreational marijuana, a whole new world of cannabis-adjacent architecture and design lights up. Here are 10 standout dispensaries, including a couple proposals for rooftop pop-ups and even a Cannabis Cruise.

Barbary Coast Dispensary, San Francisco, California

Called “the most decadent pot smoking lounge in the West” by the San Francisco Chronicle, the Barbary Coast Dispensary is modeled on luxury speakeasies in the city’s old red light district, and features a hash bar, smoking lounge and dab bar among stained glass, dark leather and red flocked velvet wallpaper. The owners wanted the space to have a San Francisco flavor, as opposed to the clinical ‘Apple Store’ look favored by a lot of other dispensaries.

New England Treatment Access (NETA), Brookline, Massachusetts

Set into the historic Brookline Bank building, the NETA dispensary features original design by Swiss-American architect Franz Joseph Untersee, who’s best-known for his Roman Catholic Churches. The traditional interiors are definitely a stark contrast to the places people often procured marijuana before it was legal.

Serra Dispensary – Downtown Location, Portland, Oregon

The third location of the Serra dispensary chain to open in Portland, this Old Town gem is set into an 1889 historic-landmarked building with a black-painted facade. Recalling the aesthetics and feel of neighborhood apothecaries, the space features 16-foot ceilings, elegant display cases, high-end smoking accessories and a lush green wall.

Ajoya Dispensary – Louisville, Colorado

You’d almost think the Louisville, Colorado location of Ajoya was a nightclub walking in, with its dimly-lit interiors designed by award-winning firm Roth Sheppard. Customers sit on single-leg stools to consult with bud tenders over a glossy white counter. If some aspects remind you of an Apple store, that’s intentional; in this age of marijuana emerging from illegality in many states, the owners wanted to project an image of safety and health.

Level Up Dispensary – Scottsdale, Arizona

Scottsdale’s Level Up essentially looks like a high-end jewelry boutique, fitted with chandeliers, backlit display cases and a lounge full of leather seating. The dark grey and green color scheme directs the eye right to the product on the shelves.

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High Design 10 Super Stylish Marijuana Dispensary Interiors

No shelter is too small or too basic to accommodate a comfortable lifestyle when everything you need, from your bed and kitchen to walk-in closets and mini theaters, is contained in one compact, mobile, modular ‘living unit.’ Often fitted out for plumbing and boasting their own internet and sound systems, these rooms-within-rooms can instantly make warehouses and other typically uninhabitable spaces into cozy apartments or save an astounding amount of space when square footage is severely limited.

Kammerspiel Unit by Nils Holger Moormann

Designed for people living in micro apartments, Nils Holger Moormann’s ‘Kammerpsiel’ contains just about everything you need in an apartment, in one compact and highly efficient package. The bed is lofted above the walk-in closet, while important functions are located along the perimeter, like the couch, storage, desk, dining are and even a place to display and store your bike.

Cubitat by Urban Capital and Luca Nichetto

Measuring 10 by 10 by 10, the Cubitat by Luca Nichetto and urban Capital is designed to be a ‘plug and play’ living space containing a built-in kitchen, living room, bed, bathroom and closets. The idea is that you could move into virtually any kind of building and instantly make it inhabitable without the need for further renovations.

Living Cube by Ken Isaacs

The first designer to come up with this concept seems to have been Ken Isaacs, whose 1974 book ‘How to Build Your Own Living Structures’ still serves as a roadmap to modular room systems today. Isaacs reportedly came up with the idea when he was a poor Chicago student needing a place to live and work. The whole book is downloadable here.

The Hub by Kraaijvanger Architects

Another all-in-one apartment system, the Hub by Rotterdam-based architects Kraaijvanger, contains everything you need to make a warehouse a comfortable place to live – even plumbing. It measures just a little more than 160 square feet, hooks up to existing water mains through an access point in the floor, and has its own internet, heating and sound system.

Wooden Mountain Hotel Suite, Volkshotel

Not all modular living systems are cubes, though. The Wooden Mountain in the Volkshotel’s Edmund Suite packs just as much function into an amorphous wooden structure, including a wardrobe, double bed, shower, toilet, full-sized soaking tub and even a cactus garden. Photos by Arend Loerts.

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Inner Space 14 Modular All In One Living Cubes Organize Interiors

More than just a means of advancing from one level of a building to the next, staircases are an opportunity for drama and sculptural flair, like a permanent art installation built into the structure. Spiraling toward skylights, carved into a building’s exterior or planted with lush gardens, these incredible modern staircases are the defining feature of the houses, museums and offices the occupy.

Experimentarium by CEBRA, Denmark

This incredible 328-foot-long helix staircase by CEBRA at one of Denmark’s top science centers is made of 160 tons of steel and 10 tons of copper, spiraling up through the four-story atrium.

Salvador Dali Museum by HOK, St. Petersburg, Florida

At HOK’s Salvador Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida, a stunning surrealist design befitting the artist being honored contains a spiral staircase that curls up toward the skylight even when the stairs end, like a vine stretching toward the sun.

Victoria & Albert Museum Stairs by Stuart Haygarth, London

Pieces of colorful framing typically used to frame art in museums becomes art in and of itself in this staircase installation by UK designer Stuart Haygarth at the Victoria & Albert Museum. Nearly 2,000 feet of cut-off framing pieces are joined, sanded and painted “to create a work akin in 3D graffiti on a traditional staircase reminiscent of the yellow brick road in ‘The Wizard of Oz,”” as the designer explains.

Interrobang Building by Bang by Min, Seoul

Rarely is a modern structure – particularly one shaped like a tower – so defined from outside by its exterior staircases. The firm Bang by Min ‘carved’ a staircase into the concrete block of the Interrobang mixed-use building in Seoul.

The Living Staircase by Paul Cocksedge

Commissioned for the creative office development Ampersand in London, ‘The Living Staircase’ by Paul Cocksedge features integrated planting areas along the balustrade as a functional garden.

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Stepping It Up 15 Spectacularly Sculptural Modern Staircases

The appearance of the city outside – complete with crosswalks and grids resembling aerial views of urban blocks – acts as a transition space between the entrance of a bookstore and the quiet, private spaces beyond. This space by XL-muse, located on the fourth floor of the Réel Mall in Shanghai, references the orderly aspects of urban aesthetics, carrying them from the sunny, exposed main room into the darkened alleys full of floor-to-ceiling shelves.

Street lights gently illuminate the rows of books in these tranquil hallways, organized like pedestrian promenades complete with central park benches and displays. Mirrors are employed to visually double the height of the shelves, making them feel as if they continue up into the sky and stretch far deeper into the building than they really do. Paths direct you from one ‘house’ of books to the next as you explore the shop.

In these atmospherically-lit areas bursting with dark-stained wood, shoppers feel like they’re navigating the city late at night, when the traffic has died down and the streets are eerily silent. The crosswalks continue into the small cafe, stepping right up onto the ceiling and then back out into the showroom, where white pegs inserted into the concrete walls can be pulled or pushed to create display niches.