Staircases: The Architecture Of Ascent

The essential purpose of a staircase is utilitarian: to facilitate ascent and descent. Yet the design of even the simplest stair is complex, requiring great knowledge, skill, and ingenuity. This volume showcases the astonishing diversity of staircases over the centuries, from the stepped pyramids of the Maya to the exquisitely proportioned stairs of the Renaissance, to the elaborate balustraded confections of the Baroque period, to the virtuosic, computer-aided designs of today. Among the scores of featured staircases are Michelangelo’s double stair at the Palazzo dei Senatori on the Capitoline Hill in Rome; the double-spiral stair at Château de Chambord in France’s Loire Valley; the entrance stair in the Winter Palace (now the Hermitage) in St. Petersburg; the radical spiral ramp of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Guggenheim Museum; and the exterior stair at the Pompidou Center in Paris. Architectural tours de force all, often charged with religious, mystical, and hierarchical meaning, these staircases are inherently dynamic, as is every page of this fascinating and beautifully illustrated book.

* > Oscar Tusquets Blanca is an architect, designer, painter, writer, and curator. He lives in Barcelona.

Martine Diot is a historian and head of information studies at the Centre for Research on Historical Monuments in Paris. She has published
several books on architectural design.

Adelaïde de Savray is a graduate of the Université Sorbonne Nouvelle. Now living in Pittsburgh, she has worked as a research assistant and archivist with an interest in the cultural heritage of France.

Jérôme Coignard is an art historian and journalist who writes regularly for the magazineConnaissance des Arts. His books include Dream Palaces: The Last Royal Courts of Europe(2004).

Jean Dethier is an architect and urban planner. He has curated more than twenty exhibitions at the Pompidou Centre, Paris.

Veste editoriale: Cartonato con Sovraccoperta
Formato: 24,8x33,6
Pagine: 240
Immagini a colori: 238
Lingua: GB
Anno: 2013
 
ISBN: 9780865653092