Building/Ground: Inclines in Public Spaces

Staircase urbanism -- on site

Source: Machado and Silvetti Associates architectmagazine.com

Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) Campus, Providence, Rhode Island, USA designed by Machado and Silvetti Associates

They proposed reworking gaps in the urban fabric—parking lots, bits of redundant street, amorphous green patches—as a sequence of related spaces, bounded variously by new construction, remodeled façades, and loggias. Given the incline of about 100 feet from the lowest to the highest RISD properties, the scheme featured a series of grand stairs and intimate plazas recalling Baroque precedents. New architectural features shown schematically in the proposal played freely on the Classical precedents of some on-site buildings. (1980 P/A FIRST AWARD) -- ARCHITECT Magazine

Source: Progressive Architecture

Piazza Dante, Genoa, Italy, 1990 competition entry designed by Machado and Silvetti Associates

Transformation of the historically and strategically significant Piazza Dante through the removal of existing vehicle-related facilities and construction of a fountain and stairways connecting the old and new cities.  The main stairway, which doubles as informal seating, is canted, like a grounded ship; it opens onto an intermediate level of fountain where three buttressed stairs lead up to the historic center. (1990 PA Urban Design Award) -- Progressive Architecture, Jan. 1991 pp 118-119.

Also see "Unprecedented Realism/The Architecture of Machado and Silvetti", K. Michael Hays, Princeton Architectural Press pp 161-163.

Source:  inhabitat

TU Delft Library, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 1997 designed by Mecanoo Architecten

.... to develop a light-filled landmark that would serve as “a gateway to the digital highway”. What they achieved is a public place that is not only a core for information, but also features a prodigious public green roof for people to explore, relax and play. -- inhabitat

Museumplein, Amsterdam, The Netherlands designed by Dutch/Swedish landscape architect Swen-Ingvar Andersson.

[Western Section] will become the new hub for Museum Square, with entrances, sanitary facilities, parking and shopping amenities, and the transformation of the ‘ezelsoor’ (‘donkey’s ear’, an oblique grassy incline covering an entrance to a lower-level supermarket). -- Stipo,Team for urban strategy and city development.

An interactive presentation of the Museumplein 1891-2020 shows rich information about the square's history and recent design.

Source: Te-MingChang

Institute of Contemporary Art(ICA), Boston, USA, 2006 designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro

They envisioned the [HarborWalk] extending up metaphorically into the building, like a single undulant ribbon “enfolding public and private realms,” as Diller puts it. With one continuous surface material—Santa Maria, a hardwood used in boatbuilding—the boardwalk “flows” up to form stadium steps (a see-and- be-seen venue) overlooking the water. The deck then morphs into the stage floor and raked seating inside the museum’s theater, only to curl back, wrapping the auditorium ceiling and rolling outdoors again as the cantilever’s underbelly above the grandstand. --  Architectural Record March 2007.

Source: archrecord.construction.com

Price Center East, UCSD, San Diego, California, USA, 2008 designed by Yazdani Studio of Cannon Design

If there is a formal entrance, it’s on the southwest, where wide stairs double as seating and look over the “piazza,” calling to mind the grand steps of an old courthouse. Proceeding up and into the building, the nonlinear, hyperdense organization of the space becomes fully apparent. There’s a lot to take in. On the east is a maze of offices, retail areas, meeting rooms, and a nightclub; the western half contains more retail, ballrooms, a dance studio, and a renovated/expanded bookstore. Open areas are furnished with movable chairs and couches, where students meet, eat, study, even snooze. On the second level, the new building connects to the old via a bright yellow passageway.   -- Architectural Record

Source: Eduardo Eckenfels archdaily.com

Pampulha Square, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brasil, 2008 designed by Arquitetos Associados

The project redesign topography creating slightly sloping green surfaces that improve natural drainage, define permanence areas – grades, benches, platforms – and cover facilities – public toilets and bar – improving the open public character of the square. -- ArchDaily

Source: tistory.com

TKTS Booth, Time Square, New York City, USA, 2008 designed by Perkins Eastman, Choi Ropiha 

the glass stringer beams that support the structure’s glowing red staircase-cum-roof; it’s a place for visitors to sit, relax, and enjoy the street theater of Times Square -- ARCHITECT

also read a post from  ArchDaily

Source: Marcus O'Reilly Architects

Red Stair Amphitheatre, Melbourne, Australia designed by Marcus O'Reilly Architects

This red stair works as a beacon, an easy to find meeting place. It is an outdoor amphitheatre for buskers & small meetings or demonstrations, and for sitting in the sun.  -- architect's web site

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Source: Pietro Savorelli archdaily.com

Curno Public Library and Auditorium, Via IV Novembre, 24128 Bergamo BG, Italy, 2009 designed by Archea Associati

The project is located inside a larger area, meant to be a school and community services complex, and posits itself as an element generative of a different dimension of public space, capable of designing a new square, a contemporary theater and its extension and stairs, is a reinterpretation of the traditional cavea: a space for meditation and observation. -- ArchDaily

Source: construction.com

Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center, New York City, USA, 2009 designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro with FXFOWLE

the team placed the new school spaces in a cantilevered wedge that forms a prowlike canopy, zooming out to Broadway and West 65th Street above the new 38-foot-6-inch-high glazed lobby, and designed so that the prow’s underside tilts up at a 16-degree angle. (A small outdoor “grandstand” at the southeast corner echoes the tilt.) -- Architectural Record, June 2009

Source: Kevin G. Reeves archdaily.com

The Bertram and Judith Kohl Building, Oberlin, Ohio, USA, 2010 designed by Westlake Reed Leskosky

....the building brackets a landscape that serves both the college and community creating a one-eighth mile long axis extending south from Tappan Square, the historic center of Town. This axis becomes an entry plaza, drawing activity to the center of the building where it splits, continuing south or ascending the building as a series of steps and terraces leading to third floor roof gardens. -- ArchDaily

Source: Pietro Savorelli archdaily.com

Merate Piazza, Merate, Lecco, Italy, 2010 designed by Archea

The proposal keeps to the idea of a park and a square, maintaining the built city’s spirit without imposing its own volumes; a system of rampart/terraces navigates the changes in levels with stairways and ramps, organizing the square’s area in panoramic levels. -- ArchDaily

Source: construction.com

Lincoln Restaurant Pavilion & Lawn, New York City, USA, 2011 designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro with FXFOWLE

When they were designing it, “we imagined prying the lawn up from the plaza, and filling it in with glass below,” says Diller. “The effect is a beautiful, bucolic, urban space where you can lose all track of time and have a picnic.”  -- Architectural Record

Read a post from ArchDaily

Source: Eduard Hueber archdaily.com

John Jay College of Criminal Justice, New York City, USA designed by SOM

The new building consists of a four-story, 500-foot long podium and 14-story tower. The podium, which provides connections to Haaren Hall, contains dense social and academic programs and is topped by a 65,000-square-foot landscaped terrace that will act as a campus commons. The tower, known as “the cube,” contains faculty offices, academic quads, a conference center, and instructional laboratories. -- ArchDaily

Source: Filip Dujardin archdaily.com

Espace Culturel Victor Jara, Van Zeeland Square, Soignies, Belgium designed by L’Escaut Architectures + Bureau d’études Weinand

The project contains, in its morphology, the two sides of the local cultural dynamic: institutional culture inside the building, and popular culture outside and on the building, following the external walks and a stepped slope that doubles up as outdoors seating for street festivals, carnival and other events, or simply welcome occasional pedestrians. -- ArchDaily

Source: Adam Mørk archdaily.com

Youth Centre, Roskilde County, Denmark, 2012 designed by Cornelius + Vöge

Several façade elements breaks the basic shape of the building into a smaller scale: a stair functions as a small stage area, covered entrances and the corner window which cantilevers from the building and creates a more intimate living space for the children to sit in smaller groups – a private space being a part of the interior and exterior at the same time. -- ArchDaily

Source: Cecile Septet archdaily.com

Cultural Center, Nevers, France, 2012 designed by Ateliers O-S architectes

A square is created in front of the building. Space of conviviality and meeting, it climbs over the project with a wide open staircase, like an agora overlooking the neighborhood. -- ArchDaily

Source: David Sundberg archdaily.com

Via Verde, 700 Brook Avenue, Bronx, New York, USA, 2012 designed by Dattner Architects + Grimshaw Architects

A dynamic garden serves as the organizing element for the community. The garden begins as a ground level courtyard and then spirals upwards through a series of programmed, south-facing roof gardens, creating a promenade for residents. A terrace and community room at the top floor of the tower offers dramatic views. -- ArchDaily

Source: Lee Fotografy archdaily.com

Da-Yo Fire Station, Taoyuan City, Taoyuan County, Taiwan, 2013 designed by K-Architect

After the construction was completed, the whole fire station is merged into the park, and found a mutually beneficial solution for the coexistence of park and public facilities. -- ArchDaily

Source: Adam Mørk archdaily.com

Råå Day Care Center, Kustgatan 1, 252 70 Råå, Sweden, 2013 designed by Dorte Mandrup Arkitekter

The building is based on the surrounding landscape, with its flat slightly sloping dunes and the distinctive typology of the small fishermen houses. -- ArchDaily

Source: Guei-Shiang Ke archdaily.com

Kaohsiung American School, Kaohsiung City, Taiwan, 2015 designed by MAYU architects

Scaled up stairs become gathering spaces for classes, corridors with frequent insertion of long oak benches create pocket meeting spaces for pause and exchange, hallways terminate at raised-height spaces produce opportunities for invitation as well as participation of activities down below, and few widened isles with recessed projectors and screens enable future teaching activities with limitless possibilities. -- ArchDaily