We believe that architecture has a great influence on user behaviour and that stairs are important in this context. They play a catalytic role: moving up or down a staircase automatically slows a person’s pace. You perceive what’s happening around you more intensely and enter more readily into conversation with people than when you’re just moving along a corridor – at least when the stairs are in an open volume. By avoiding corridors and building generous spaces, we create a sense of openness in buildings. In the office development for the Deloitte business consultants, for example, there’s a large atrium with short flights of stairs linking the various levels, and on every level there’s a small island where people can meet and communicate with each other. At the same time, we designed the staircase space as a work of art in light. The soffits of the stair flights are illuminated in different colours that slowly change and never have exactly the same appearance. In this way, we’ve achieved a high degree of identity between members of the staff and the building.
The design is not so much concerned with the staircase as such, but with the way in which we conceive spaces. The spatial relationships are the central aspect. In the case of the secondary school in Ørestad, for example, the initial idea was related to the boomerang-shaped areas that wind their way upwards, leaving an open circle in the middle. The logical outcome of this was a central staircase space that links the various levels. In other buildings, too, there’s often an open atrium. Nevertheless, quite different staircase spaces come about, depending on the way the stairs interact with the other spaces and link them up and the way they absorb light or deflect it into certain realms. (Kim Herforth Nielsen)
3XN, with its offices in Copenhagen, is one of the internationally best-known architectural practices in Denmark. Co-founder and partner Kim Herforth Nielsen was interviewed in the Danish capital by Julia Liese.
The design is not so much concerned with the staircase as such, but with the way in which we conceive spaces. The spatial relationships are the central aspect. In the case of the secondary school in Ørestad, for example, the initial idea was related to the boomerang-shaped areas that wind their way upwards, leaving an open circle in the middle. The logical outcome of this was a central staircase space that links the various levels. In other buildings, too, there’s often an open atrium. Nevertheless, quite different staircase spaces come about, depending on the way the stairs interact with the other spaces and link them up and the way they absorb light or deflect it into certain realms. (Kim Herforth Nielsen)
3XN, with its offices in Copenhagen, is one of the internationally best-known architectural practices in Denmark. Co-founder and partner Kim Herforth Nielsen was interviewed in the Danish capital by Julia Liese.