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Submitted by: piegirl600 via Submit a Kludge!
Man, somebody has an unhealthy obsession with Jenga. – Ms. Fix-It
Favorite Comment: Fixer dono1 says, “For alcoholics, this is a very effective 12-step program.”
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Not a kludge… an excellent way of solving the problem of not having enough room for putting in a staircase. I would like to see handrails, of course, and a sign saying that you have to be under 40 YO to use it
)
There is a possibility that I’m completely wrong about this, of course.
Looks like an excellent way to break one’s neck.
I’ll have to forward this to my insurance agent, & get his opinion if I can copy it for my home and still have Homeowner’s Liability coverage…
No, no you are not wrong. It is the first thing I thought – hand prints on the walls and ow my poor knees would never negotiate that steep staircase!
Ok, so you would have put a ladder in its place.
This staircase is one solution to make the upper floor accessible WITHOUT having to use a ladder. Sometimes the horizontal space is so small that you can’t do much else.
Actually, I would indeed prefer a ladder to a staircase like this without handrail.
Fine for going up; I can’t see coming down (facing forward, anyway) for anyone over 35.
why 35? or is it in your mind that is when folks become incapable of doing things?
better check again. there are many a home with 35+ years old folks using these.
in fact one couple with a dome home have these in them. in fact it took 20 years for them to get it. makes them well into their 40s, if not their 50s
one can add a handrail to the set up. someone with a dome home with a simular type of stairs to this, did just that.
It’s time to branch out into a new Cheezburger website: Homicidal Architecture.
LOL I think they’re capable of doing that!
The opposite of ‘happy chair is happy’
“Homicidal Architecture” would be great! I bet Sara of Lovely Listing would be able to help; she has a number of photos of doors leading out the second floor (with nothing below them), second-floor lofts with no railings, etc. Oh! Oh! And the 747 house!
It IS a kludge! Through a slip up, they ordered only half the number of stair blocks as they needed, so they cut them diagonally.
the only way it is a kludge. is because they only had the size of a closet to put in a set of stairs.
This in not a problem, it is simply what’s known as a alternating staircase.
why 40? or is that the age you consider to be ancient and unable to do any thing anymore?
If it wasn’t for the second picture I thought this would be in the house of someone obsessed with Sasuke/Ninja Warrior
http://sasukepedia.wikia.com/wiki/Godantobi
http://sasukepedia.wikia.com/wiki/Rokudantobi
http://sasukepedia.wikia.com/wiki/Jyunidantobi
http://sasukepedia.wikia.com/wiki/Dome_Steps
exactly my thoughts.
“And new to the Ninja Warrior Obstacles is the Half-Assed Halfsteps. Competitors must go down, being sure to hit every step, while being dexteric enough not to fall into the crocodile pit at the bottom, and then flipping onto the bottom of the opbstacle to complete the Demon Stairs obstacle”
(if you dont know what demon stairs is, google it, or youtube it. it should be there somewhere)
That looks awesome! I love it!!
Oh that is soooooooooooo not to code. It’s pretty, though.
I think it’s a nice structural advancement, in fact I’d want this in my house.
You aren’t really a church, are you?
Oh you’ll love it! It’s the newest trend in modern architecture: Non-Euclidean fixtures and features. This way, you can have the coolest house in the neighborhood, AND send the safety inspector to a mental ward, all in ONE PURCHASE!
This is where Kludgethulhu lives, isn’t it?
Where do I sign up for your religion?
whats with all of ur weird questions this is a pic i got of my aunt so i do not know
the ones on the right are cool. the left seem like a tough climb
They’re different views of the same staircase.
Same staircase. One pic is taken from the top, other from the front.
Win^^^
Totally unrealistic. Obviously photoshopped. In any real house, those corners would be full of dust bunnies before you finished putting away the vacuum from cleaning them!
Or maybe that’s just my house…
I’m thinking the house is brand new and not lived in -yet-.. as there seems to be no decorations in either picture, and the second picture shows a little bit of some other house spaces that have no furniture.. I think that’s an oven in a kitchen in the background of picture two?
There would be no decorations in a Danish Modern.
Hard to believe this place is still on the market.
yes, no blood on the floor
With stairs like that, I’d think the upper floor will be permanently unfurnished.
This is not photoshopped but a great solution to put in a usable staircase where you normally would need a ladder because of lack of horizontal space.
A great solution for people who’d rather break their necks than have the shame of needing a *ladder* to go to upper floor.
I’m not saying i want to break my neck, but i’d love to have stairs like that. The ONLY difference between a ladder and a stairs is that stairs can move from their original position, whereas stairs cannot. So if you have a “ladder that is a “natural” or unremovable feature of the architecture, it will still be considered a stairs (in technicality only, ofc)
Here is this stairway (5 photos) in its context on this Swedish site:
http://www.tafarkitektkontor.se/projects.asp?id=107&imagename=Stair_1_TAF.jpg&nr=1
This stairway lacks a handrail and for this reason, I don’t consider it good design.
I spent the first half of 2006 recuperating from my broken arm. I slipped on my own stairs, which I’ve gone up and down for years.
all stairs do not have a handrail. untill someone adds one. either by putting in a half wall on the stairs itself or on the wall itself if there is a full wall.
dont you mean dust mop or a swiffer?
Make sure you don’t start on the left foot…
…*with* the left foot…
Depends which way you’re going.
Oh, I think you’re going down no matter what.
That’s what she said!
bwaahahahaha!!!
Maybe it’s just me, but that seems really unsafe… Or at least tricky to do. Maybe I’d have to actually use those stairs first, I dunno… until then, I’ll just stick with regular stairs.
Yep – staggered stairs like that let you make a much steeper flight than you could with full-width ones. Notakludge.
Pete
So what does this have to do with David Bowie?
I believe it’s a Labyrinth reference.
I lived in a house with a staircase very much like this, actually. It was steep and you wanted to take it carefully, but entirely practical for such a small space.
Thanks. It must be the Labyrinth connection, seeing that you and many other readers have agreed.
Yes, its a reference to the staircase scene at the end of Labyrinth, where Bowie played Jareth, the awesome Goblin King. It’s here:
http://media.photobucket.com/image/labyrinth%20staircase%20jareth/kate_mckay/bowie_labyrinth.jpg
It is a reference to the 1986 movie the Labyrinth. David Bowie is the Goblin King and his castle has a crazy set of stairs.
http://www.planetperplex.com/en/item268
How you turn my world, you precious thing . . .
Great scene in one of my all-time favorite movies.
Labyrinth.
Maybe — or he’s just that twisted-awesome.
It’s not like Bono would do this.
I just have this overwhelming fear of falling when I look at the first picture. I think I’d stick with regular stairs.
We used to have stairs like those in a rented apartment. It wasn’t that bad, you just had to remember which foot goes first, but we did fall a few times (with dishes flying, because kitchen was downstairs) so we moved out.
Up? Down? Left? Right? Clockwise? Counterclockwise? I DON’T KNOW ANYMORE!
The Bowie reference is to the M.C. Escher inspired ending sequence of the film “Labyrinth”…
I’d like to see someone get a piano or a sofa up this staircase.
Actually, I’ve done it. My stairs were like this in my appartment. That was the way to get up into the living room on the second floor.
Ok, in my appartment there was a wall on one side and a hand rail on the other side so we had enough space to get something big up there.
Seems to me that a ladder is a better solution to a tight vertical space than this crazy staircase. You get built in hand grips and you don’t have to worry about which foot you start off on.
I’m not sure I could do that one sober. Just imagine after a couple of Southern Comfort Ice teas.
That’s SO a better solution than a ship’s ladder! Very elegant looking, even if it would likely be difficult to clean.
I don’t know weather I would fall up these stairs or down them. I know I wouldn’t go near them if I had more than 1 glass of wine.
Good point. Perhaps this is the stairway out of the drunk tank at the local police station. Can’t make it out? Then you must be above the limit!
The drunk oubliette. “Freedom is eleven isosceles triangles away, gentlemen!”
NOT isosceles! An isosceles triangle has at least two equal sides.
I know; I figured the two long sides would be the same length if they weren’t stacked on top of each other and the view was obstructed.
Clearly they’re right-angled triangles. But “iscosceles” would probably confuse the drunks even more, because there’s no way you could pronounce it after a half-dozen beers.
Those steps just look like a fast way to break my neck, wine or no.
I thought this was the entrance at AA; probably made in China too!!
What you are looking at here is commonly referred to as a
“Ninja entrance”
warning if you are under the influence of alcohol please do not climb up stairs. violators will be shot if not already dead. survivors will be shot again
does someone really hate the slinky?
Slinky just hasn’t been the same since Jim Varney died. Some of us took it better than others.
This is a good solution, something between a ladder and stairs. This type of solution is often used in tight spaces.
The article with a link to the architect’s site:
http://www.belowtheclouds.com/2008/01/18/trappa-av-taf-arkitektkontor/
climbing’s easy… coming back down safely is gonna be a real mother…
Imagine carrying a load of laundry down these and tripping on the dog’s chew toy on the way down.
Imagine you dog going down this “stairs”.
Ouch!
I would be completely terrified of these stairs. I wouldn’t take anything but there that can’t fit into a backpack, and nothing that I can’t do without for years at a time. Jesus.
Mmm… the things I would do with Bowie on those stairs… Who cares that he’s in his 60s!
For alcoholics, this is a very effective 12-step program.
You win the thread.
Yeah, put the beer at the top, and they’ll trip and give up alcohol at the third step.
First thing I thought of was that an Obsessive-Compulsive type guy that absolutely MUST start up/down a staircase with the correct foot would absolutely **LOVE** this!!!
/obsessive-compulsive type guy
//walks across tiled floor in “knight” pattern
I would love to see a dog or cat climbing those.
I’d like to see a mountain goat have a go.
Or a Slinky going down those.
Greatest. Slinky. Course. Ever.
Despite hours of training and dozen of various contusions, Johnny could never manage to reach the second floor after a few beers.
Johnny now realizes that Lucy was dead serious when she said: “You come home drunk, you sleep on the couch.”
It’s a wood version of a metal alternating tread stair:
http://www.lapeyrestair.com/
They’re commonly used in firehouse hose towers. But they work better with hand rails on each side.
The problem I see with this version is that the each step slightly overhangs the same-sided one below. Lift your leg off one step and catch it on the protruding underside of the next, good way to trip and fall.
I seen this, and first thing I thought of, is there will soon be rub marks on the walls at chest-height. Going up will be will be like climbing any staircase, only faster. Going down has that risk of falling forward. So to keep from landing on the first floor head-first, I would descend with my elbows against the walls, using friction to maintain balance. What a way to go thru shirts in a hurry.
Give it a friction-balanced Splat!
Took me a minute to even realize what I was looking at. I thought the first picture was the straight-on view you see as you’re climbing the stairs… o.O Not that it makes much sense either way. Someone has clearly ‘shopped out the mangled bloody corpse that is surely lying at the base of this monstrosity.
So this is basically for people never ever drinking anything…
and I like to run up/down stairs in the middle…. not on these stairs….
(
Handicap accessible: no.
Fracking awesome: YES.
Ow, my brain…and my eyes! This kludge hurts!
My back! My shins! My back again! No, not the face!
This is in fact a very common type of stairs – at least here in germany. Okay the specific shape with all these edges is extreme but a similar stair is built into my mother’s house (but rounded)
that would explain why the stair case in the house my dad grew up in was rather narrow. and short. not as short as this. no corner landings as the stairs wound upwards to the level above. built in a small town in america….
uhhhhh….i feel dizzy.
Okay, so stair surfing is out of the question on this one.
To really save space, the designer should have incorporated a bookshelf under each step.
Now, the race to invent the escalator versions of this one…
Stop it, you’re hurting me – I’m not spacial! The teeth! The teeth!
(Visualizing makes a sort of tearing sensation, as bits of the imaginary background pull loose to go with the moving parts. Strange but true.)
Imagine falling down those stairs :O
Illustration of what happens when you get a wedgie from your architect.
Warning: NOT for the equilibrium-challenged.
If I ever were to have my own house built, these kind of stairs would be a cool addition. :3 It looks difficult and dangerous, but I am sure that with a bit of practice one would get used to it.
Modern art these days..
Warning: do not use stairs when:
-Drunk
-Hurt
-Natural very clumsy
Stairway to NotSoEven!
Gosh. I would so hate to always go with my left foot first!
Steping off on the left foot!!!
In the country where i live the building code wouldn’t permit you to build stairs like this(yes even homes have to follow some standard safety regulations).
if it is the USA. they do not allow them between the first and second floor. but they do allow them if it is to a loft. or the attic
one word:
SLINKY!
What if you remember something you forgot on the floor you are leaving when halfway up or down these stairs? Do you either have to complete the entire flight and THEN turn around or climb/descend backwards?
Personally I think someone was too lazy to take out the side walls and put in a spirial staircase. ‘Too much work’ they said ‘lets just make these triangles and put hardwood on them and call it a feature’.
Trippy.
I seriously do not think this is made to be used, everything about it is against the codes.
When I go up or down stairs, my feet are usually 4 or 5 inches apart. On these steps, you have to climb up them with your feet about, what, 10 – 14 inches apart.
You don’t want to get off on the wrong foot on these stairs. At least they give you a nice groove straight down to the bottom.
This is designed to punish long-striding people who prefer to take two steps at a time.
Why wouldn’t a very narrow steep staircase work here? I know there’s not much horozontal space so the pitch would be quite steep, but it’s already steep as it is here.
A similar narrow space leading to a loft in a house I once visited had a tree-trunk leaning on the loft and notches cut out of it. the effect essentially was that of a ladder, but I think I’d still prefer that to this.
At that grade (more that 60 degrees of climb!)
the steps would be too short to accomodate your foot length, OR the risers will be too high in seperation. Either way, a normal stairway cannot climb so steeply.
Imagine climbing up this thing while drunk
this is just one example of Staggered Stairs. something DIYers have been using for a verrrry long time.
you really do not need a full length stair width for each tread. and it gives more room for the houses.
remember that for every average sized stairs in your house. you need to deduct twice the amount of sq footage of the stairs from the living space. since one really can not use the space under the stairs. nor can you normally have flooring on the space needed to have a body while it is moving up or down the stairs.
staggered stairs increase the livable amount. by shortening the space needed for stairs.
check out Lapeyre, Karina, Monk’s Stairs as other types of staggered stairs being used.
by the way, one can still put a railing up for the hands. just can not be the super thick one that most folks see in homes. but a bit thinner.
Have you ever considered that maybe nobody who ever saw them lived to tell about it?
if so. then why after seeing them and using them. folks are putting more and more of them in homes. and designing different forms for the alternating treads?
as well as the company that makes them tends to sell a lot of them after the folks who see them. have tried them out and like them enough to buy them?
My gawd. My neck just broke just looking at it…
well this looks very cool
love it but I think it would be hard to climb it the first times but avter that I think it would be awsome 
I was once in a house where the stairs followed a simular idea… the staris lookd normal but the steps were kinda cut in half a bit like this => http://www.trendir.com/archives/mini-staircase-rintal-stair-detail.jpg but the steps were wider
You’d have to memorize on the way down to start with your right foot, NEVER THE LEFT.
Or bish, bam boom, splat!
would it be okay if I used this and captioned it using a saying similar to your David Bowie one?
For all of you out there thinking this is a smart way to solve the space problem when needing a staircase.
Why on earth would you have a space problem when needing a staircase? Oh, because you are a greedy bastard? Because you bought the smallest, cheapest piece of land but you want to build a n floors building on it to show off your neighborhood? Because the space for your dresser is more important than the safe of your neck?
If you have a multiple floor building and a problem with the space for your staircase you or your architect is an idiot.
gee, maybe because they are not as filthy rich as you are. and need to save cash in building. and not everyone needs or wants a McMansion on top of that.
plus it saves on usable space. and they could have added a handrail or fingerholds. but very few folks actually put their hands on handrails going up or down stairs.
Perfectly functional staircase.
but…
NO HANDRAIL?
Climbing down that grade on ANY form of staircase will be a knee-breaker without a handrail to help balance.
Why go to all of that effort when you could just use a ladder. A ladder would be better, cheaper, faster.
Can’t usually get all three.
And probably safer!
nope. depending on the ladder used. a ladder can slip off the upper level and drop the user on the ground with the possiblity of their hands being pinned under the ladder and the person’s weight as well.
as well as stairs are more permenent. whose’s to say that someone sees a ladder between the two levels. and without realizing that someone is up on that upper level and is using it, removes the ladder. thinking that the person left it without putting it away properly.
Hmm… less Labrynth and more insanity, like Ziggy Stardust!!!
Ziggeeeeeeeeee playyyyed guitaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrr
I like ship’s ladders, I feel cool because I have the balance to go down facing forwards, not back at the stairs like you’re supposed to. (?)
( ! Tell that to the navy).
But ship’s ladders have handrails. This one is going to have handprints all over the walls. North American codes always insist that at least one staircase between floors accomodate a couch or refrigerator (and we have big refrigerators here). Other countries just assume you have a big window and a hoist beam upstairs.
My neighbors had their house custom built. When the exceptional workmen poured the cement front steps they merely put the form up to the house UPSIDE down. So when you tried to climb the steps to the house only half of your foot was on the step… And the house “passed code”… (after the passing of money!) The current owners built teak steps and a porch to cover them!
It’s very easy to get up these stairs, you need Dance Magic.
What, any Bowie reference is an automatic magnet for me.
This… this makes my left-foot-first OCD VERY happy. XD
Going up, sure, but what about coming down?
These are actually more common than you’d think and, surprisingly, meet code in many jurisdictions as long as they’re not the sole means of escape from a fire. There are many styles available. I’ve specified some from this site in an office building as access to a storage loft.
http://www.1stairs.com/stairspictures/gallery.asp?action=viewimage&categoryid=12&text=&imageid=68&box=&shownew=
Wow, this is a drunks worst nightmare, or the 3-D version of twister…
thanks guys this is one of my only pics people like and yea its a drunks worst nightmare
This is not a kludge. This is a perfectly normal way to solve a common problem in renovations. If you don’t have enough horizontal space to cover the height with a normal staircase, you use alternating threads.
it is.
basically they all belong in the type known as the alternating tread stairs. and they have been i n usage since about 1888
there is this style, the monk’s stairs also known as the paddle stairs. Lapeyre stairs, the Karina. as well as several other styles.
You better be left handed going up…I want to see a drunk trying to use his right foot LOL
And suddenly, they knew how they were going to solve the problem of all those exposed pipes running through the hall … : )
I actually like this….
I do too. at least a child who left a toy on the stairs would learn VERY fast on why not to do so……
The owner requires a moving company trained by M.C. Escher.
This wouldn’t fly in the states. That’s what they make spiral staircases for
actually there are houses in the USA with alternating steps stair cases in them.
if you need a example. try Ann Arbor, Mich., Dome home, Monks Stairs. in fact, here is a bit from a website on the owners and their home: “It’s called a “monk” staircase because that’s what was used in monasteries,” Clark explained. “It’s like a ladder with alternating wide thread steps. If the bottom thread is twelve inches wide on its right side and 6 inches wide on the its left side, then the next thread up is twelve inches wide on its left and six on its right.
“People love trying it,” he continued “because it looks scary, but is really easy. In no time at all, most folks can go front wards or backwards without a problem. My wife, who is really afraid of heights, uses it all the time.”
Or maybe the homeowner is actually a Slinky.
This is how they got Cyclops to fall down the stairs
A richard simmons work out dream. step ladies!