Style & Culture

Mindblowing staircases

Spiralling, twisting, turning - staircases are no longer just a way of getting up and down. Architects are letting their imaginations run wild, transforming the once-functional into the most mindblowing creative forms, from mosaic-tiled to mountain-cut. These are a few of our favourite amazing staircase designs from around the world.
Amazing staircase designs from around the world
  • The stairs at Cotton House Hotel in Barcelona are suspended from a metal frame by cables

    The stairs at Cotton House Hotel in Barcelona are suspended from a metal frame by cables

  • A helical staircase at the Salvador Dalí Museum in Florida evokes the artist’s obsession with spirals and the double helix

  • Kioyar Ltd

    Two storeys joined by an engineered-brick stairway house 3,000 pieces of art from Damien Hirst’s personal collection at Newport Street Gallery in London

  • A sculptural stairwell is the central feature of the four-storey, glass-clad Armani store on New York’s Fifth Avenue

  • Helene Hilaire

    Strips of oak wind downwards at Las Heras hotel in Strasbourg, which sits inside the city’s former royal stud farm

  • Charcoal-hued steel sheets ascend through the open atrium at the Mamilla Hotel in Jerusalem against a backdrop of local limestone

  • Lengths of reclaimed timber are supported by steel rods at Hotel Hotel in Australia’s Canberra

  • Architect duo Anne Peyroux and Emmanuèle Thisy designed the hidden monochrome stairway for Hôtel de Sèze in Paris

  • Koji Fuji/Nacasa & Partners

    Two intertwining staircases encircle The Ribbon Chapel, which is dedicated to wedding ceremonies in Onomichi, Japan

  • Hélène Binet

    Designed by Zaha Hadid, MAXXI National Museum of 21st-Century Art in Rome was awarded the RIBA Stirling Prize

  • Engelhardt/Sellin

    Munich’s Infinite Staircase is in fact a continuous walkway

  • Zigzagging trails lead to a viewpoint high on the Trollstigen National Tourist Route in western Norway

  • Designed to blend in with the surrounding landscape of Bryce Canyon National Park, steps are set into a stone wall at Amangiri in Utah.

  • Tim Evan Cook

    The palazzo's main staircase at Soho House Istanbul

  • Tim Evan Cook

    The staircase at the Aliss restaurant in the Glass Building at Soho House Istanbul

TopicsArt & CultureArchitectureStyle & Culture