The unusual feature of the beautiful staircase in the Vatican Museum is the risers stay the same but the going increases in length, with each step, allowing for a staircase which opens up conically.
most beautiful spiral staircases
Some of the most beautiful pieces of architecture in the world have a spiral stair as the final flourish. The spiral stair is an architects favorite, from Gaudi to Corbusier to Foster, but some of the most interesting spiral stairs are accidental pieces of architecture, such as those inside lighthouses or on giant silos and storage tanks. Here is a deliberately diverse collection of some of our favorites. Vote for yours.
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The spiral staircases that rise up silos are one of the best examples of accidental architectural greatness. Have a search on Flickr for some more stunning exmaples.
The Lorreta Chapel stair has become legendary, with people claiming it is somehow miraculous. The truth is that it is just very efficiently and elegantly made. Instead of featuring the stair itself, we are showing a replica that took 4 years to make in the 70's and can be yours for an undisclosed price.
City Hall is not the best of Fosters buildings, being one of the vogueish blob shaped jobbies that will look increasingly kitsch as they are built in abundance in oil rich states. And the stair is not as good as some similar forms such as the Reichstag ramp or the New York Guggenheim, for the matter. But they are ramps and this is a list of spiral stairs, and this is one of the best examples in recent architecture.
While not the most beautiful in the strictest sense, these stairs are interesting because they are so unlike any traditional architectural style that they look out of time and place, science fiction without being futuristic.
The spiral stair at Cedar Creek Treehouse Observatory is actually cantilevered off the trunk of a huge tree.
Sentou, in France are distributing a re-issue of the classic Roger Tallon modular staircase. Impossible to tell from their website, however.
The staircase in the largest of the Loire Valley Chateaux, is possibly the worlds most famous spiral stair. It consists of two separate intertwined staircases that go up three floors without meeting.
The effortless spiral stair at Corbusiers Villa Savoye shows that you dont have to make a big deal of exposed structure for a spiral to be beautiful.
Any number of Gaudis innovative spiral stairs could have been used for this list, but this shot of the organic shape of Casa Battlo in Barcelona is particularly inspiring.
As with the lighthouse stair, we could have chosen from a wide array of libraries which often have stunning spiral stairs. This is from the Handelingenkamer.
The overlaid pre-cast concrete slabs are rotated so that there is no obvious central support. Beautifully simple.
This stair happens to be in a lighthouse in Florida, however it is chosen to represent a type rather than an individual masterpiece. Architecturally, lighthouses are often like building which consist entirely of a spiral stair and a balcony, an extreme requirement which creates some stunning examples.
