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or stairs shape town and landscape through terraces and
exterior flights of steps (4).- The individual step already distinguishes between
above and below. When steps participate in a spatial situa-
tion, communication through ascent and descent can be sup-
ported as a means of an extended body language. At times, it
suffices to climb a single step in order to dominate a situation.
As a basic element, the step is a kind of separator which also
performs the function of a > threshold. The shallow step of
the kerbstone, for example, suffices as an explicit delimita-
tion between street and sidewalk, and a single-stepped base
is already an effective means of elevating a facade above the
ground upon which it stands.
Steps can also be used in order to accentuate the impor-
tance and the separating effect of thresholds. Moreover, flights
of stairs themselves are threshold spaces, which prepare for
reorientation or evoke specific expectations. By closing the
gaps between storeys, moreover, they resemble bridges, which
overcome the disjunction between separated areas. On a stair-
case, one is neither here nor there.
A vertiginous feeling may arise on staircases without
clear lateral containment, whereas a shaft set between narrow
walls seems to lead downward into an abyss. In the context
of the building, the staircase forms a vertical > joint that, as
a form of > access, assumes a preeminent role as a key loca-
tion within the > spatial structure. In many instances, it is
the staircase that provides an understanding of a building’s
spatial > order or of its architectural > concept. The stairwell,
expanded to become an airspace, creates a vertical connection
that makes it possible to grasp the spatial structure in eleva-
tion. - Through the alternating positioning of horizontal and
vertical elements in this form of risers and treads, the stair-
case’s figure of ascent embodies the basic constitution of our
physiological existence. The vertical corresponds to standing
and walking as conditions of our upright posture, while the