Designed as the centerpiece of a much larger apartmentrenovation for art collectors on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, this stainlesssteel stair represents the culmination of a fully integrated generative designprocess which exploits advanced digital design techniques from the earliestconceptual stages, through performative analysis and onwards to fabrication.
In the search for a final form that inhabits the fecundterritory between exuberance and rationality, custom code was developed tomarry the generative potential of 3D architectural modeling with the analyticpower of structural design software. In an entirely automated evolutionaryprocess, populations of stairs were created in compliance with strictfabrication constraints and then rated for structural performance. Followinggenetic principles, new generations were produced in which individuals showedstronger and stronger properties until a final design was deemed structurallyadequate to connect two floors with no intermediary supports while making threeninety degree turns.
Materially, the stair embodies a restrained palette ofpolished stainless steel, white translucent Corian and low-iron glass.
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