One Blackfriars Hotel, London [GB]

EeStairs + Simpson Haugh Architects + Powerstrip Studio

This staircase, at a stylish hotel at Bankside, London, demonstrate how the structure of an apparently unsupported feature staircase can be disguised and installed so that the eye is not distracted from the geometry and finer architectural details of the stairs.

In this case, the stairs are held up by the steel U-section of the outer balustrade, and by a concealed structural connection between the outer balustrade on the second flight of stairs and the wall. This means that the tight turn at the first rest-landing and the more open angle at the second rest-landing seem effortlessly achieved. The baluster rods connecting the inner bannister and the sawtooth stringers are equally elegant.

The steel U-section of the outer balustrade allowed EeStairs to create a low-level inner recess for concealed lighting tracks, which cast a soft glow over the carefully matched oak veneers on the stair-treads. The client was particularly keen that the stair-posts and bannister were as thinly sectioned as possible, and EeStairs solved this by making solid steel sections coated with bronze-effect paint.