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Saturday, January 26, 2013

Homemade Springboards

I presume, at some point, that you have used stairs. They have long been a favorite way for people to get up to places and, then, amazingly, down from them as well. Stairs are the friend of everyone from those who wish to fly but just don't have the budget to murderers who want to make it look like an accident. Oh, the surprise functionality of even a broken escalator can yeah I'm not going through with this idiotic buildup any longer let's just get to it.

Lloyd Alter of Treehugger brings us a very, very, very, rather over-the-top minimalist stair design out of Portugal. Minimalist design is, as you know, taking what is absolutely needed and stripping out all else. In the case of stairs, apparently all you need are elevated platforms and a way to make them elevated.

© Feedback-Studio

 You also need a death wish. These stairs might be fine for Mario, but I would like to climb my stairs knowing there isn't the imminent risk of plummeting death from making one false move or a wedge-shaped stair with little to no structural support snapping out from beneath my feet. There isn't even a guardrail.

They actually appear more structurally sound than another set of stairs in Spain that Alter posted in 2008...

source: Jordivayreda Projectteam


In 2008, Alter said of this latter set of stairs, "I think the interesting question is how we are so afraid of innovation, that we wrap ourselves in so many rules, that we just look at this and our first thought is "someone will kill themselves on that." I actually am beginning to agree with commenter Nightrain who said "Good God, you're all so uptight. Waaa waa waa, code, safety, blah blah. It's not your house, so lighten up." He stopped for a while after alienating readers with continued admiration for designs being minimalist to the point of danger- minimalist designs use fewer materials- but he couldn't resist this time.

Sure, Alter. Sure, Nightrain. I'll lighten up. I'll lighten up after I die on those things and become an angel that lives on a cloud.

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