Page 207 - ELEMENTS EUROPA (EN)
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ELEMENTS EUROPA REASONS FOR DETAIL 203
Railings are made up of perforated grids. The only loads they HISTORIC STAIRCASE RAILING NET
must bear are the horizontal pressures they are subjected to
when somebody leans on them. To achieve this, some eight The original railings are in good shape yet does not have the
perforated-grid hulls are fixed against the wood floor slab standard height (90 cm in flights of stairs, 1.10 m on landings
and the ensemble is stiffened in its higher section by means below 12 m fall height, 1.20 m above this height).
of a 10 x 50 mm circular handrail. This handrail distributes the
horizontal pressures exerted upon any given spot to the hulls Replacing the staircase is out of the question given that it is
as a whole. Regardless of the horizontal pressure orientation, classified, not to mention how difficult it would be to combine
its circular shape always causes for two noticeably parallel the various railings heights between flights and ample landings
hulls to take on the loads due to their resistance to shear inserted on each floor.
forces without having to resort to massive elements resistant
to bending. Despite the thinness of the grid, the performance Therefore, the selected option consists of adding an extra net
of the ensemble is so homogeneous that attaching hulls to one inside day stringers, detached from the latters and from railings
another becomes redundant. Yet, “buttons” are fixed to the themselves, and built to prevent any fall.
vertical open joins between the adjacent grids to guarantee
perfect parallelism between them in those places. Therefore, a set of stainless steel cables is stretched over
the whole stairwell height. Cables are attached to all the
LIFT SHAFT CONNECTING THE ATRIUM AND BASEMENT 1 flights they come across, by means of small stainless steel slot
brackets. Thin horizontal bars, placed thirty or so cm away
Here, geometric conditions are stricter than for the press from one another also connect them together. Thanks to these
foyers: a wider diameter semi-cylinder (3.59 m), with a total connections, the ensemble is surprisingly stiff even though only
height of 4.99 m and only two spots for high fixation. Hull made up of flexible or little rigid elements.
structural morphology remains an option but presupposes that
perforated grids must be stiffened. On higher floors, the stairs carry on throughout the floors
added to the existing building. The steel grating acts as railings
Even though reinforced, the resulting construction is very and the two stainless steel handrails are simply fixed to the
light. 20 x 50 mm steel strips are discontinuously welded to the very cables. Tubes are continuous throughout their entire
four edges of 2 mm-thick curved perforated grid panels. The development and the forces they take on are distributed over
four panels making up the semi-cylinder are composed of two their entire grating length, which when seized conveys an
prefabricated sub-ensembles. Screwed against one another, the unusual yet reassuring feeling of overall stability coupled with
connecting uprights are half as thick, reaching the same width some degree of flexibility.
as the other uprights taken together. A curved profile of the
same section crowns the ensemble at its top, 1.20 m above
the atrium floor.
