“But despite the multi-dimensional usage of staircases, they communicate in an extremely fixed formal language. The proportions and measurements of the treads and the risers are accurately calculated to best fit human motion, regardless of how tall your legs are or how big feet you have. However, different design varieties of steps generate different movements. Ones with deep treads makes us take bigger steps and we tend to walk up or down them more slowly than steeper ones, that we tend to walk on quicker and with, well, less thoughtfulness. Because some stairways we want to cling to and others we want to get off as soon as possible. Thus, stairs capture a sort of ambivalent ambiguity. A two-wayed transportation towards the top and the bottom.”
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“Stairs” by Karin Weiborg & Josefin Hellström Olsson, apartmento issue 09.
One day, I will submit something as beautifully thoughtful about something as simply ordinary.
