Commerical Staircase Design

The brief for the commercial staircase design was an extension of a previous project where we designed a retail space for the year 2040. The context of the previous project derived from shift in retail sector consumer behaviour from in-store presence to online dominance.

The concept ‘Euphoric Synaesthesia’, focuses on the play on words from the chosen skincare brand Drunk Elephant, with their playful approach to skincare, with their bright colour palette, humorous phrases and somewhat reminiscence of 90’s rave culture. The design of the staircase will continue on this vein with the existing sensory distortion design.

The initial idea was to propose Corian as the primary material, where I started to explore the idea of a recessed handrail, initially as a separate aluminium handrail with recessed LED lights underneath. I liked the idea of sourcing a textured Corian for both the purpose of safety to avoid slips and trips, but also to connect to the tactile stimulation of the existing space, as well as connecting back to the tactile nature of elephant skin. A contrasting material for the risers was also proposed to give customers the opportunity to still see down into the basement as they were ascending to the top floor. I also explored the exterior, as I wanted to continue along the thread of sensory distortion. By including geometric mirrored tiles, it represented the scales within Elephant skin,but would also effectively allow the exterior of the staircase to ‘disappear’ within the store.