most popular:
VW's 282 MPG Car



most popular:
Vertical Gardening


th comments
Dwall said: "This is from the same guy who is buying up water rights from farmers in order to sell it back to big cities by way of long pipelines built on land ..." [read]

Alex M. Pruteanu said: "I saw this on the heels of reading about Nissan introducing an all electric car to the States by 2010-2012. As noted in a comment above me, I vivi..." [read]

ben said: ""teach your cat some discipline!" Bahahaha! Have you ever even met a cat?..." [read]

Paul Eckerson said: " Having a degree in chemistry and working in the feild my entire career, I know that the laws of thermodynamics tell me using electricit..." [read]

Bobbiker said: "If there were no bike boxes or bike lanes or separate bike paths, and cyclists simply shared the roads with cars as I have done for 35 years with c..." [read]

Stairs as Storage: The Upgrade

by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 02.13.08
Design & Architecture

2008-02-13_112928-TreeHugger-storage-stair.jpg

Last year just about every design website and magazine showed a set of stairs with storage built into each riser; over at Planet Green we even give instructions on how to build it.

Holger Kehne and Eva Castro of London's Plasma Studio have done a very elegant version of the storage stair in their Esker Haus, a renovation and addition in San Candido, Italy. It has an exterior stair that is a killer, too.

2008-02-13_112853-TreeHugger-storagestair-closed.jpg

Stair closed

2008-02-13_112810-TreeHugger-storage-stair.jpg

Stair open (I can't quite figure out what the upper drawers are doing)

2008-02-13_113046-TreeHugger-esker-house-exterior-stairs.jpg

Exterior Stair. ::Plasma Studio

Comments (3)

I think the flip up piece is to keep people from trying to come down the stairs when open...you know safety first!

jump to top Chris says:

What are the upper stairs doing?
Very simple - keeping someone from walking down the stairs into a sliding drawer at night because it was left open. The raised cap on the upper stairs is a safety feature to be used anytime any drawer is open.
The biggest problem with drawers in stairs is safety and liability. For instance, there are regulations regarding stair design and evenness of tread and riser because people need stairs to be predictable. A stair which changes configuration presents unique issues.
I like drawers in stairs. I also never want to hurt myself because I stepped into a drawer.

jump to top Robert says:

It looks like the "upper drawers" aren't drawers, but a flip-top open space three stairs deep.

That exterior stair - wow!

Very clever and beautiful

jump to top R. M. Koske says:

Post a comment

(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)

th ads
th top picks
th ads