Floating staircases always make a big impact, but rarely do they actually look like they’re just wisps of clouds spiraling through a living space. Prior to renovation, the three floors of this home weren’t connected by a single staircase, leading the basement walkout level to feel distanced from the first and second floors. KOS Architects and Atelier Zerebecky wanted to give the villa a sense of liberating weightlessness, a space that feels fresh and light amid the noisy clamor of urban China.

The staircase itself is strikingly sculptural within a central vaulted space, with all of the home’s main rooms connected to it: the living room, entertaining spaces, kitchen, gym, theater and bedrooms. A gradient of opaque white on the glass railings gives it its signature atmospheric look. The balustrade hides the structural steel so the stairs can appear to float on air.

The client wanted something grand and ostentatious without being gaudy, the architects explain.

“Our first gesture was to create a unified space as the backbone of the home – a large double-height vaulted ceiling creates a sense of grandeur without resorting to the extravagance of Loius XIV décor and gold leaf ornament, something so prevalent in the high end residential market of suburban China. Our doubly curved vault maximizes the ceiling height beneath a suburban pitched roof architecture while creating a smooth venetian plastered volume that exhibits the play of natural light. This space houses the ceremonial entrance, the formal living area, fireplace and a new glass staircase.”

The rest of the home feels equally light and airy, including a pink child’s bedroom with its own slide. More photos are available at the Atelier Zerebecky website.

Photos by Highlite Images Taipei

Alternating treads, ultra-narrow ladders, built-in storage and other tricks enable these 15 smart space-saving designs to fit into the smallest of apartments. Offering access to sleeping lofts, second stories or just elevated storage, these ultra-compact staircases avoid a large footprint through furniture integration, tight spirals, or – at times – clever solutions that wouldn’t really pass safety inspections in most places.

Stairs Integrated in Entertainment System

The steps to access a small glass-walled loft are barely noticeable in this contemporary renovation to a 1930s traditional English cottage-style home by Mark Frazerhurst Architect. They’re built right into the entertainment center, with alternating treads sticking out from a functional shelf.

Loft Bed/Ladder Combo

An all-in-one kit from Sweden’s Compact-Living adds a loft with a wall-mounted ladder to any room with a high enough ceiling to accommodate it.

Minimalist Steel Rod Staircase

Designer Francesco Librizzi added this contemporary metal rod staircase to an original house in France built in 1900, saying “the only possible intervention was an almost 2D-frame, able to double the space in height and create new possibilities on other layers.”

Simple Staircase in Belgium Mini House

These stairs take up very little space thanks to a pivoting design with a (very) small platform at the bend. Too bad staircases like this – lacking handrails – don’t typically pass code inspections in the United States.

Bookcase Stairs by WORKSTEAD

A bookshelf ladder by Brooklyn designers WORKSTEAD attaches a narrow metal ladder to a built-in bookcase, leading to a skylight and the rooftop above.

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Steps To Saving Space 15 Compact Stair Designs For Lofts

Cantilevered from the wall, made from heavy steel, concrete or glass, these stair treads seem unfettered by the laws of physics, hovering in the air. All manner of engineering tricks were used to make these 18 modern staircases into works of art that we just can’t stop staring at.

Hefty Concrete Hanging Stairs

(image via: contemporist)

How do you make concrete stairs look lighter than air? These stairs at the ‘Querosene House’ by architecture firm grupoSP seem to defy gravity, hovering with no visible support.

Cold-Rolled Steel in Manhattan by RAAD

(image via: stairporn)

Floating from one floor to another, these black cold-rolled steel stairs resemble one solid piece of metal, folded like an accordion. Designed by RAAD for a home in Manhattan, the stairs have several waterjet-cut steel stringers concealed within the thickness of the metal.

Floating Steel Tread Stairs, Seattle

(image via: contemporist)

Cantilevered out from the wall, these minimalist steel stairs are right at home in a thoroughly modern West Seattle residence full of steel beams and exposed concrete.

Folded Steel Origami Stairs, London

(image via: dezeen)

Folded like origami, this stainless steel staircase by architects Bell Phillips are a striking centerpiece for an all-white hallway in a London home. Six millimeters thick, the stairs look like they’re floating but are actually supported by a glass balustrade.

Suspended Stairs at the Godzilla House, South Korea

(image via: chaepereira.com)

South Korea’s ‘Godzilla House’ is quite an interesting piece of architecture as a whole, but the curved shape and chameleon-like metal facade are just the beginning. One particularly striking element included by Chae Pereira architects is a wooden staircase with white vertical supports that almost look like rope from a distance.

Ribbon Illusion Stairs by HSH Architects

(image via: illusion360)

If you have to stare at your staircase from the living room every day, why not make it a work of art? This beautiful ribbon staircase by HSH Architects puts ordinary stairs to shame, distributing weight down to the floor through hidden brackets mounted into the wall.

Bright and Modern in Italy

(images via: plastolux)

In the midst of an airy, mostly-white midcentury modern home is this seemingly floating staircase, supported on the external side by a sheet of red-tinted acrylic. The stairs are lit from beneath and the transparent wall reflects the room around it, giving the whole staircase a slightly psychedelic feel.

Semi-Circular Plastic Stairs for Kids

(image via: momoy)

This whole incredibly creative space is definitely worth a look – it’s fascinating, fun and futuristic – but for the purposes of this article, let’s talk about these awesome stairs. Each curving step descends from the wall on either side, forming a totally unexpected way to access a play area on the next floor.

Barely-There Stairs Above a Reflecting Pool

(image via: dezeen)

The way that these stairs play with light and reflection in the space around them is almost more important than the stairs themselves – design-wise, at least. Positioned above a reflecting pool, the cantilevered stairs provide a bit of shady respite on the way to a sunny terrace.

Incredible Bird’s Nest Suspended Staircase

(image via: archdaily)

These stairs definitely aren’t trying to hide – they’re the most interesting element in the room. Reminiscent of a bird cage, the chaotic criss-crossing metal bars are balanced by the serene white of the walls and cabinets.

Triangular Treads at the Shallard House in New Zealand

(image via: archdaily)

Triangular stair treads were a fitting choice for a very angular modern home in New Zealand, designed by architects Lat Forty Five. Each individual step is bolted onto the block wall to give the illusion of flotation.

Spiraling Stairs Supported by a White Wall

(image via: bookshelfporn)

The owners of this home took full advantage of the ultra-high ceiling in the space to create a little library, connecting the second floor to the first with a partially spiraling staircase that is supported by a wedge of a wall, providing a private nook for reading behind it.

Hanging Black-and-White at BUMPS, Beijing

(image via: plataformaarquitectura)

These highly unusual blocky black-and-white stairs are a visual echo of the BUMPS building’s exterior, which consists of black and white rectangles seemingly stacked Jenga-style. Each step is connected to the next leaving negative space as they descend, resulting in interesting optical effects when viewed from the lower floor.

Cantilevered Concrete by Eugeone Pons

(images via: plastolux)

Concrete once again seems to flout the laws of physics in this unnamed building, photographed by Eugeni Pons.

Modern Floating Stairs in Austria

(image via: architonic)

Two separate steps of ribbon stairs, hovering above the ground, form a breathtakingly artistic staircase at Büro.Loft in Austria.

Minimalist Black Stairs by Ecole

(image via: plastolux)

Like an Escher drawing sprung into three dimensions, this floating staircase by Ecole is made all the more dramatic with the use of bold black against a white wall.

Near-Invisible White Staircase in Tokyo

(image via: what we do is secret)

Achieving the opposite effect from the previous example, this staircase in Tokyo is as unobtrusive as possible, practically disappearing into the wall.

Curving Bamboo Staircase by Eedesign

(images via: eedesign)

Viewed straight-on or from the side, this staircase by Eedesign doesn’t look too unusual. But from certain angles, the novelty of the design becomes apparent. Beneath standard-shaped stair treads is a curving support system that resembles a spine, giving the staircase a highly sculptural quality.

They might not get you from one floor of a building to another; in fact, you might not even be able to step on them without sliding off or getting vertigo. But these 15 spectacular floating spiral staircases and stairways to nowhere go beyond utilitarian architectural features that resemble modern art – they are art. From a transparent red staircase made of sheer fabric to massive sculptures twisted into knots, these stairs serve as symbol and metaphor, not to mention eye candy.

Terrifying Stairway to Heaven

(images via: langbaumann.com)

Would you have the strength of stomach to take on this totally terrifying stairway? Dozens of feet above the ground and lacking any kind of handrail, these steps connecting two steel doors on a high-rise look like a building inspector’s nightmare. But they’re not for actual use – they’re a concept design by artists and architects Sabina Lang and Daniel Baumann.

Staircases Floating in Mid-Air

(images via: langbaumann.com)

Lang and Baumann didn’t stop there with their incredibly artistic staircase designs. Their series ‘Beautiful Steps’ features not only twisting white spiral staircases that hover in mid-air in gallery spaces, but also a curved stairway that leads out one window of a building and back into the same room through another window.

Rachel Whiteread’s Great White Stairs

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Stairs aren’t just a functional way to get from one place to another as far as contemporary artist Rachel Whiteread is concerned. She takes casts of industrial staircases and turns them into hulking white abstracted sculpture, giving the negative space a physical presence.

Olafur Eliasson’s Courtyard Stairway

(images via: christian beirle)

Walking up this set of stairs may not actually get you anywhere, but it sure would be good exercise. Olafur Eliasson’s sculpture, entitled Rewriting, is a route to nothingness in the middle of a Munich office building’s interior courtyard.

Circular Spiral Staircase by Peter Coffin

(images via: saatchi gallery)

Like Eliasson’s Rewriting, this spiral staircase by artist Peter Coffin won’t get you anywhere at all – and in fact, you’d have a hard time even climbing the steps, given the impossible angles. But the sculpture is more concerned with the beauty of the staircase’s shell-like shape. Saatchi Gallery says “Through his humorous constructions, Coffin bridges art history and everyday experience, subverting the preconceptions of both.”

Cedar Stairs by Ursula Von Rydingsvard

(image via: ursula von rydingsvard)

As far as staircase art goes, ‘Floating Staircase’ by Ursula Von Rydingsvard is actually quite functional, albeit extremely heavy and bulky. But once again, function is simply not the point. The artist, who grew up in post-World War II refugee camps in Germany in which nearly every surface was made of wood, finds a sense of humanity in the most mundane objects. “The way in which I manipulate the cedar is very important to me, but I have a feeling that I even learned from things that I never saw. Working with it and looking at it feels familiar,” she told PBS.

Stairway at the Center of the World

(image via: joe orman)

Jacques-Andre Istel believes that he has identified the exact center of the world, and that it is on his own land in Felicity, California. This town, named after Istel’s wife, is packed with all kinds of bizarre and fascinating monuments, including a spiral staircase that was salvaged from the Eiffel Tower in 1989.

Translucent Red Staircase by Do-Ho Suh

(images via: claudio marzano)

If it weren’t for the vibrant red color, Do-Ho Suh’s staircase would seem as if it were barely there, diaphanous and airy, suspended from stainless steel tubes.  It’s part of a series called Reflections, sheer nylon reproductions of spaces that are meaningful to the artist but seem surreal, losing tangibility, almost like a fading memory.

Revolutions by Michel de Broin

(images via: maa.org)

Artist Michel de Broin twisted a set of stairs into an endless knot in the work ‘Revolutions.’ He said of the work, “I twist this symbol into a knot that speaks against what this symbol means. Stairs are a symbol of progress, of linear onward and upward, but in the knot they become a continuous circuit.In the 18th century, we thought that progress would always continue, that things would always get better. And now we know that there is progress, but also regression; things go up but they also go down. (…) So activism is also important when there’s a problematic issue. But my job is to make art. And I think art can transform.”

Glass Stairway to Heaven

(image via: sculpture.org.uk)

Leaning back without any apparent support, Danny Lane’s staircase seems to defy physics. Fragile and luminescent, this sky-blue glass staircase seems an archetype of the phrase ‘stairway to heaven’.

Stairway to the Stars

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New Orleans’ Tulane University got a ‘Stairway to the Stars’ in 2008. The fire-engine-red, 28-foot tall sculpture by Mark de Suvero was one of six large modern sculptures added to the university’s quad.

Tenerife Staircase Monument

(image via: wikimedia commons)

Designed by Dutch sculptor Rudi van de Wint, this majestic spiral staircase stands as an appropriate memorial for the 248 passengers who lost their lives during one of the deadliest accidents in the history of aviation, the crash at the Tenerife Airport in 1977.

Confusing Ghosts at the Winchester House

(images via: winchester mystery house)

Some of the most famous stairs to nowhere are at the Winchester House in California. The product of a lonely widow’s frantic obsession with remodeling her house over and over again, 24 hours a day for 38 years. The reason? After the tragic deaths of her husband and infant, Mrs. Winchester consulted a psychic medium who told her that her family was haunted by ghosts that would never be happy unless she built a house for them. So she built, and built and built – and threw in some useless stairs, possibly to confuse the spirits that made her life so strange and difficult.

Are stairs dangerous? How about if you twirled round and round and then tried to walk them? How about if you did not whirl but the staircases spun around in dizzying spirals? There is something entirely intriguing about spirals. Spiral shapes can be found in architecture, in nature, in DNA, and even in other galaxies. These 101 sexy spiraling shapes are architectural art. They twist, curling like a spring. This is a celebration of spiraling architectural design, angles versus curves. They may make you smile or they may induce vertigo, but here are some the most impressive, most dizzying, spiraling staircases from around the world.

Vatican

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In Rome, inside Vatican City, the Vatican Museums are some of the greatest on the globe. The above spiral staircase inside one of those museums is the most recognizable spiral stairway in the world. In the late ‘20s, Pope Pius XI commissioned the monumental project and entrusted the sculptor Maraini with the creation of the model. Marinelli Foundry cast it in bronze. Pope John Paul II later commissioned the Marinelli Foundry for the 340 meters of bronze handrail.

Bexhill to Budapest

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The top two images are of the spiral staircase built in 1935 at De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill on Sea, located on the south coast of England. Ceilings and balconies have also been inspired by the same circular design, like on the middle right, in a Budapest, Hungary museum. On the bottom is the spiral staircase at Piccadilly Circus in London. Enjoy this virtual trip and these architecturally artistic flights without needing to climb a step.

Castles to Towers

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These might make you dizzy as you ascend and descend, twisting and turning, spinning and whirling. Spiral staircases were first popular in castles like the castle in Chmielno, Poland, on the top left. Spiral stairs constructed during medieval times were usually made of stone and tended to wind in a clockwise direction. The three pictures on the right are of the Arc de Triomphe, a monument in Paris. There are 284 spiraling steps to reach the top of the Arc. The middle photo is looking down the round shell, while the bottom photo is looking up. On the bottom left, the spiraling staircase is from a castle in Poland near Kopiec Kosciuszko.

Helical stairs

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Helical stairs have a handrail on both sides, but no central pole like true spiral stairways do. Here are some helix / double helix staircases. The top left is in the interior of the Statue of Liberty. Both the top right photo of Royal Château de Blois and
the Château de Chambord on the bottom left are located in France. There are double helix DNA outdoor stairs and yet another springy spiral shape at the Garvan Institute in Sydney.

From Sagrada To Vizcaya

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The top two and also middle right photos are of Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia. The Sagrada Familia is a massive, privately-funded, Roman Catholic Church in Barcelona, Spain. It was designed by Antoni Gaudí who started worked on it in 1883. There was a previous architect in 1882, but Gaudí redesigned the The Sagrada Familia. It will have 18 towers and is not expected to be complete until at least 2026. The spiral on the middle left can be found in Miama at the Vizcaya Museum. Construction started on the bottom left staircases in 1499. It is the twin spiral staircase inside the “Burg” in Graz, Austria. The bright yellow staircase is looking up to down in La Praille, Genève.

Dizzy

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You could spin round and round and probably not get any more dizzy than if you leaned over the railing to snap a shot of these gorgeous spiraling staircases. The top right photo is of The Tulip Stairs, inside the Queen’s House, Greenwich Park in London. It was the first centrally unsupported spiral stairs constructed in England. On the middle left is a view looking up the spiral staircase that leads from the upper floor of the Stift to the Cathedral. It is located in Melk, Austria. On the bottom is a great shot looking down at The Monument to the Great Fire of London.

Spirograph

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Staring at all the spirals can be a bit hypnotic. The yellow spiraling staircase in Austria was taken at the bottom looking up. The green staircase was titled Spirograph. On the bottom left is Vertigo, taken in Padova, Veneto, Italy. At the bottom right is the spiral staircase at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh.

Spiral Up, Spiral Down

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Palazzo Barberini is a palace in Rome. It was built in 1549 and the top two photos are of an oval staircase by Borromini. The ornate spiral staircase on the bottom left can be seen in Malaysia at Kuala Lumpur Railway Station. The middle right photo was snapped inside the Museum do Pobo Galego in Spain. On the bottom right is the Lighthouse Island Virgin in France, Phare de L’Ile Vierge. Both spiral and helical stairs are classified by the number of turns that are made. Most very tall, multi-turn spiral staircases are found in lighthouses, castles, and old churches.

Down The Hole

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People who photograph spiral staircases seem to be in good shape as there are hundreds of stairs to climb to the top for the pictures looking down. On the top right, the old spiral staircase was photographed on the Ile de Ré off the west coast of France. On the middle right is a spiral hallway in the Navel Aviation Museum in Castelar, Buenos Aires. The middle left photo is of the Northern Lyngvig Lighthouse in Denmark. At the bottom left is the view looking up the Lednicky-Vltava Minaret in the Czech Republic.

Black & White Vortex

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The narrow twists as you climb up or down can leave you intrigued to see what greets you at the top or bottom. Something wonderful or something ominous? Dizzying spiral staircases can be found all around the world and are architecturally superb. The top right is entitled Stairway Near to Heaven while the bottom left was taken at Rathaus-Glockenspiel in Munich. The middle right spiral staircase was photographed on the climb up to a flat in London. The bottom right was snapped at the top of a lighthouse, looking down.

Brown Spirals

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Built in 1907 and in need of repair, the spiral staircase on the upper left is located at the Baron’s Palace, in Heliopolis, Egypt. This house is also supposed to have secret tunnels. At the middle right is the view looking up at a spiral staircase in the Architect Gunter Behnisch’s Museum für Kommunikation in Frankfurt, Germany. The bottom left leads to a restroom in Helsinki-Vantaa Airport, Finland, while the bottom right is the view from a Paris hotel.

Spirals

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From Fleet Street in London, looking up, like in the upper left, to the swirling orange design to its right, spiral staircases apparently come in all colors and flavors. The middle left was taken in Alicante, Spain, while the spiral staircase on the middle right was not tagged with anything more than Orange Vertigo. On the bottom left, this spiral staircase at the Palazzo Rosso in Genoa was restored by architect and museum curator Franco Albini. The bottom right stairway shows art again meeting architecture at Frank Gehry’s Art Gallery of Ontario.

Round-n-Round

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The top left photo was taken at the Hotel Botanico in Tenerife, Spain. The top right was taken looking down a belltower in Zadar, Croatia. On the middle left is a hypnotic view looking up and captured at the Café Glockenspiel in Munich, Germany. At the bottom left is one of the many spiral staircases in Rome. The red carpeted spiral staircase is located in Heniz Hall that houses the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.

Heaven and Soul Connection

(image credit:Alicia-Lee-07)

This magnificent masterpiece is not a stairway, but a stained glass ceiling inside the Thanksgiving Chapel in Dallas. It spirals upward to 58 feet. It’s called the Glory Window. It was designed by Gabriel Loire of Chartres, France.

Spiral Down

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The spiral staircases at the top and middle left were photographed in Rome. On the top right, this staircase was built in 1854 for an octagonal house in Wisconsin. The middle right spiral is looking down from a stairway in Madrid. At the bottom left is a spiral staircase constructed in 1854. That must have been a good year for spiral design. On the bottom right is a restored staircase for Casa Feliz Historic Home Museum in Winter Park, Florida.

step Step STEP

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The red and white swirl was built in 1930 and is located within a skyscraper in Ljubljana, Slovenia. The photo at the upper right was taken within a hotel in Helsinki, Finland. On the middle left is the Emerald Spiral. It is located in Prague close to one of the “most dangerous” streets in Warsaw, Poland. Visitors are advised: “huge zoom lenses and video cameras will attract unwanted attention, quite possibly worse.” The top right is called The Green Snake. The bottom green spiral staircase was snapped in Munich. The bottom right photo is from the first floor looking up, somewhere in Rome.

Non-circular Spirals

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On the middle left is a dynamic artistic feature at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago. The black and white photo is of a spiral staircase in Italy. The bottom right picture was captured in Münster, Germany. Otherwise, look up or down and open your mind to the possibility that Rome has hundreds of fascinating spiral staircases. It was where the rest of these were photographed.

Colorful Staircases

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All of these colorful and architecturally enchanting stairways can be found in Rome. There is a group of photographers who belong to the “Spiral staircases and staircases project in Rome.” They walk around with their friends and capture these vivid beauties and their perception of reality for the rest of us to enjoy.

The Eye

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Mel’s Bookstore in Rome features this impressive elliptical spiral staircase in the top two photos. The beautiful spiral staircase on the lower left can be found in the Austrian Benedictine Abbey in Melk. But the dizzy feeling continues in the snail house design, spiraling up on the middle right. Dizzy yet? Going up or going down, can you tell which end is up in the lower right photo?

Going Down

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So whether in England at Gateshead Quays like at the top left, or in Hamburg, Germany like at the top right, try to enjoy the angles versus curves in stairways and stairwells. Does the shape really need to be round to feel the vortex of spiral motion? Spiral out of control with the dizzying sensations as you peek over the edge and look down. Peer up in wonder at the architectural art to be found in stairways. Or you can come back and look here again if you do not wish to undertake climbing the thousands of steps that you can virtually take in. But if you ascend and descend, twisting and turning, spinning and whirling, it will be worth it to see in person some of the world’s best spiral staircases. Keep your chin up and keep an eye out for spirals that are all around us.