Max & Moore Amsterdam [NL]

EeStairs + Mei Architecten and planners + CBRE B.V. | Amsterdam

Unusually, two environmentally efficient buildings in the evolving Buiksloterham business park in Amsterdam have nicknames. ‘Max’ has green glass curtain walls with black horizontal steel banding on the facades. ‘Moore’ has a geometrically modeled white concrete facade grid. And the feature stairs we created for each building, designed by Mei Architekten, follow these very different aesthetics.

In both staircases, it was important to to keep the connections between their various elements as simple as possible. In Max, the staircase is made entirely of darkly patinated steel, echoing the rugged industrial aesthetic of the external steel banding. The panelled sheet-steel balustrades continue to the floor and the balusters are very plain flat steel pieces fixed directly to the top edges of the balustrades.

In Moore, the steel stairs have a white powder-coated finish which matches the surfaces of the facade grids. The treads, risers and landings have extremely simple lines – but the treatment of the balustrades is visually striking: the very thin outer and inner balusters continue to the floor, giving them a cage-like quality.