Recommendations for Loving Town Stairs
While organizing my photos, I started marking my favorite spots with a star, and I realized that many of them were photos of nameless town stairs. I think I'll try to gather a few of them and feature them here.
1. Purpose-built stairs
None of these are stairs for everyone; they are just for specific people, so they have wider treads for ease of use, or lack handrails because they aren't needed. The shapes and attachments feel like 'necessary and sufficient' rather than 'considerate,' which gives them a sense of lightness.
The third one, in particular, is positioned in such a way that it looks like you could climb onto the roof around the stairs or enter the building directly through a window, and I think that feeling of being able to go somewhere you usually can't is what makes it extra appealing. I want to play tag here. Haha.
I used the phrase 'necessary and sufficient,' but I think my focus on the context of how forms are created is influenced by Miyamoto-san from my seminar.
https://www.shokokusha.co.jp/?p=1736
The environmental noise elements Miyamoto-san talks about are more academic, involving topographical and cultural conditions and a broader time axis, so they are different, but this perspective is definitely influenced by him.
2. Continuous visual guidance
These are stairs that, because their shape changes with each floor, make your eyes trace the route from bottom to top the moment you encounter them. I usually take about 90% of my photos in landscape orientation, but I unconsciously take these in portrait orientation.
Perhaps because the treads and risers are uniform within each floor, the discrepancy in shape between floors stands out, causing the eyes to follow them. I think this is also a 'necessary and sufficient' form for the user.
The second one is interesting because, although the two sets of stairs are not actually connected and have completely different styles, they have a flow that makes them seem related at a glance.
Public ↔︎ Residential
Concrete ↔︎ Steel
Box-type stairs ↔︎ Open stairs
Gray ↔︎ Black
I suppose this is because the uniformity of the treads and risers creates a rhythm.
I forced together things that might be similar, but I feel like my thinking has deepened a little.