I think it is an amazing creative concept to get people using the stairs more often. Today we see stairs next to escalators leaving the consumer two choices the easier choice (escalators) is almost always chose. The reason behind this is simple, both get a person to a destination but one provides less effort and is a lot quicker at getting there. Ask yourself seriously what would you chose?
In buildings today we even see when entering elevators situated right in front of us. The stairs are tucked away at the back of the building and are often ugly concrete type things in comparison to well designed colourful elevators. This is an issue in buildings today, something needs to change in the design of these buildings in order to help promote walking and stair use.
This play theory is one example, obviously not applicable everywhere but simply making the stairs more accessible and colourful could increase the amount of people using it. Anyone else noticed where they work or just in large office buildings how stairs are often tucked away around the back, or even only included for fire escape purposes?
On of the trains stations here has a pretty interesting set of stairs: http://tinyurl.com/kojb653
ReplyDeleteIt's all colorful and has motivational messages and what not, as well as how many calories you've burnt climbing up it and the sort. xD
Oh so at a certain point the message would read you have burned .... amount of calories? That is clever, and the stairs look brilliant and far more interesting then their usual dull counterparts
DeleteI saw that video at uni too. I think the new sir Samuel building at Nathan is a pretty good example of making stairs look more appealing.
ReplyDeleteAt my last workplace the majority of the stairs were the fire escape but as a 24 storey building this is maybe appropriate, and the three main floors of our office were connected by a modern glass stairwell which got used a fair bit.
Anecdotally New apartment complexes are particularly bad with this but at the same time elevators take up much less space.
Looking at the above comment I'm reminded that the office building's fire escape also had motivational messages. I think they were graffiti though.
DeleteI have yet to see that building I think, its good to know some buildings are creating very well designed and motivational type messages via their stairs though.
ReplyDeleteThe space issue is definitely another barrier faced by stairs being built especially when trying to push for them moved towards front of building to encourage usage.
I also think even if motivational type messages are graffiti its still far better then none whatsoever, and possibly a very clever idea as there is some great graffiti artists out there who could make stairs more interesting.