This amazing staircase, designed by Atmos for a London apartment, is the winner of the 2013 UK Wood Award. The staircase is actually part of a bigger wooden structure that creates a room in a room. Tucked in one corner of the bigger room, it seems to grow out of the floor like a giant tree branch, that splits up into smaller branches to for the stairs. The CNC cut layers of wood spiral slightly to create a built-in shelf structure at its lower part, and to give access to the room-in-a-room at its top part. The layers appear to be freestanding and floating in the air, as the metal structure that hold them together or attach them to the walls is almost invisible. The structure of the staircase looks alive, like a tree that has not stopped growing and which is obliged to grow in a confined space. The wooden layers that form the stairs make their way against the walls, bending and deforming against the corners that make them change their direction. The top twigs become narrower and they line the walls creating a handrail. The meandering edge of each stair and the pieces that form the balustrade are of a darker wood essence than the rest of the step. This dark-light contrast emphasizes even more the design, which looks more like a wooden sculpture than a functional structure. Amazing as it may seem, this structure was delivered in flat packs and assembled on site, in less than a day.
