Unusual and Creative Staircase Designs

Collection of unusual and creative staircase designs from around the world.

Levitate Architects came up with this ingenious solution to a book storage problem and created a loft-like bedroom nestled under the roof of the top-floor apartment.

Staircase at Lello Bookshop (Portugal).
This interesting grand staircase in Lello Bookshop in Portugal stands ominous and heavy. The steps are like two channels pouring and swirling to a single point. The side view gives you a closer idea of the immense curves and giddy sinking feeling to each step.

Spiral Stair (Australia).
Fascinating spiral stairs at Garvan Institute in Sydney, Australia. 6.5 revs and five stories from top to bottom.

Spiral Staircase at the Vatican Museum (Italy).
The Vatican Museums spiral staircase is one of the most photographed in the world, and certainly one of the most beautiful. Designed by Giuseppe Momo in 1932, the broad steps are somewhere between a ramp and a staircase. The stairs are actually two separate helixes, one leading up and the other leading down, that twist together in a double helix formation. Little did the Vatican Museum know in 1932 that this formation would come to represent life itself, with the discovery of the double helical DNA strand.

Loretto Chapel Staircase (USA).
The Loretto Chapel is a chapel in Santa Fe, New Mexico, known for its unusual spiral staircase that is an exceptional work of carpentry. The construction and builder of the staircase are considered a miracle by the Sisters of Loretto and many who visit it, because it had no central support (a support was added later). The resulting staircase is an impressive work of carpentry. It ascends twenty feet, making two complete revolutions up to the choir loft without the use of nails or apparent center support.

Tulip Staircase at the Queen’s House (England).
The elegant Tulip Stairs in the Queen’s House are the first geometric self-supporting spiral stairs in Britain. Although called the ‘Tulip Stairs,’ it is thought that the stylized flowers in the wrought-iron balustrade are actually fleurs-de-lis, as this was the emblem of the Bourbon family of which Queen Henrietta Maria (wife of Charles I) was a member.

San Francisco’s Tiled Steps – World’s Longest Mosaic Stair (USA).
The 16th Avenue Tiled Steps, perhaps the world’s longest mosaic staircase (163 steps, 82′ high), was conceived and fabricated by Irish ceramicist Aileen Barr and San Francisco mosaic artist Colette Crutcher. Over a two and a half year period, a tireless group of neighbors raised funds and lobbied city government to make the project, unveiled in August 2005, a reality. Over 2000 handmade tiles and 75,000 fragments of tile, mirror and stained glass went into the finished piece, located at 16th Ave. and Moraga, in San Francisco.

Contemporary styled staircase, designed by HSH architects.

Design by Atmost Studio.

Staircase at Longchamp Store in New York City by Heatherwick Studio.

Made from shipping pallets by Most Architecture.

Hollowed Tree trunk staircase.

Vertebrae staircase by Philip Watts Design.

Split-level staircase by nC2architecture.

Death-defying floating staircase by Schlosser + Partner.

Wedge stairs by TAF Gabriella Gustafson & Mattias Stahlbom.

Wooden spiral staircase from the bottom looking upwards. (photo)

From the monument at Fish Hill, London. (photo)

Photograph by Armando Martinez.

Bottom of spiral staircase at Castle Hartenfels in Torgau. (photo)