This extraordinary sculptural staircase made from American tulipwood is located in the newest addition to Israel’s growing Diamond Exchange District – Amot Atrium Tower. Designed by architect Oded Halaf, the tornado-shaped staircase provides both movement and interest into the orthogonal, glass-encased, four-storey high lobby. To make the staircase free of all visible support, he commissioned Tomer Gelfand, a master craftsman to provide a solutions to this engineering problem.
The entire structure includes the spiraling stairs and a tornado-like element, which seems to emerge from the reflecting walls of the entrance lobby. The stairs and the tornado elements merge at the top of the first floor, and the round top acts as a viewing balcony to the impressive hall below. Above, it is topped with a similar round element, crowning the project and perfecting the intricate composition. Functionally and aesthetically beautiful, the staircase is in fact a viewing balcony to the office lobby below it. Though the structure may seem flexible, it is in fact completely unmovable; a combination of algorithmic data processing and masterful craftsmanship, creating an organically-inspired, artistic result. Navigating it isn’t meant to be as simple as taking a functional set of stairs to get from one level of a building to the next; it’s an experience in itself, taking in the whole structure from a new angle with every step. – Tomer Gelfand
See more after the jump:
Project: Staircase at Amot Atrium Tower
Location: Tel Aviv, Israel
Architect: Oded Halaf
Responsible Architects: Aviva Ben Ari & Daria Tsoy
Timber works: Tomer Gelfand
Construction Engineer: Aeronautic Engineer Prof. Doron Shalev
Completion date: 2016
Species: American tulipwood
Photography: Itay Sikolski – Numsix
