Less is More: Stairs as Storage
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 12.17.07
Integrating storage into stairs like this makes so much sense in small spaces. It is common in Japan and I have seen Chinese furniture like this, but Voet-Theuns architecten have given it a modern spin.
A commenter at Materialicious notes that "in Belgium (the country of Voet-Theuns, and probably also the location this project) it’s quite common to have a ‘loft bed’ in student rooms. That’s because these rooms are quite often in old houses, with tall rooms. The landlords make into the room a second ‘floor’ for a bed (the height is only 1,5 meters, but that’s all you need to sleep), which saves a lot of space in the room."
hey, it's a flatpack! ::Voet-Theuns architecten flash-crazed un-navigatable site; follow "objects" then "hybrid2-trapcaste" via ::Materialicious
I was going to make a step chest to put by our stairs (first google hit for step chest http://www.greenteadesign.com/unique-furniture.html has a few pictures). From the history I found way back when they were invented it was to access a second story of small houses as stairs (and to get around a tax on the second story by flipping the top half on to the bottom half to hide the existence of the second story). Some had different sized compartments and I was planning on making one for cd storage, one for dvd, one for cr-r, one would hold the cd /dvd burner, one for the printer, one for the portable photo printer, etc.
I remember seeing some amazing stairs/storage a while back with these Canadian guys doing small prefab green homes.. maybe you have heard of them? Their stairs/storage was just sooooo cute!!
Every house in my neighborhood has a closet under their stairs... and they look a lot more stable than these weird cubby holes. But I'll give them credit for trying to be creative, because we need that now more than ever.
I guess Belgium doesn't have any of those pesky "building codes."