Discipline

Railings & Staircases

Balustrades and stairs where the structure and the ornament are the same thing.

Enquire about Railings & Staircases 24 pictures

Underside of a sculpted bronze spiral staircase showing its continuous folded soffit

The hardest thing in the building to fake.

Balustrades and staircases where the structure and the ornament are the same thing.

A staircase is the one element a visitor experiences with their whole body. It is also the element where fabrication error is most obvious: a rising handrail that wanders, a baluster spacing that drifts, a glass channel that is not quite parallel.

Curved and helical work is measured and set out from the actual site rather than the drawing, because the two are rarely identical. Handrails are formed on our pipe bending machine to a consistent radius, and the joints are dressed until the run reads as one continuous piece.

The bronze-clad helical stair on this page is a good illustration: the soffit had to be a single unbroken surface, which meant every panel was developed, formed and welded to the true curve rather than approximated in facets.

What this covers

Helical, spiral and curved staircases
Metal-and-glass balustrade systems
Cast and ornamental balustrade panels
Continuous formed handrails
Cantilevered tread supports and stringers
Terrace, courtyard and balcony railings

A note from the workshop

The handrail is the whole staircase

People experience a staircase through their hand. The rail is what they hold, what they feel on every step, what tells them the building is well made. A continuous formed handrail that flows through a turn without a visible joint is the hardest single element on most stairs, and the one that most decides how the whole thing is judged.

The rest is geometry that has to be right before anything is made. A helical or curved stair is set out from the building, not from a drawing of the stair, because the structure it lands on is never exactly where the drawing said. Measure, model, then make.

In pictures

Railings & Staircases from the workshop

The gallery

Bespoke bronze spiral staircase rising through a double-height lobby

Bronze-finished spiral staircase curving through a marble-clad lobby

Bronze-clad staircase with a glass balustrade

Brass balustrade beside a gold mural staircase

Ornate gold balustrade on a curved staircase

Brass balusters on a curved timber staircase

Blackened steel geometric balustrade panel

Brass detailing on cantilevered staircase treads

Metal and glass staircase balustrade in a residence

Bronze-clad staircase spine during fabrication

Questions about railings & staircases

Can a handrail be made without visible joints?

Around a turn, that is the hardest thing on a staircase and the thing that most decides how it is judged. A continuous rail is formed in sections that are joined, dressed and refinished so the joint disappears under the hand as well as to the eye. Where the geometry is helical it is set out from the building as built, not from the drawing, because the two are never quite the same.

Glass balustrade or metal — how do you choose?

By what the stair is for. Glass disappears and lets a stair read as a sculpture; it also shows fingerprints, needs its own fixings and cannot carry a handrail on its own. A metal balustrade — cast panels, bars, a formed screen — is the stair’s character and carries the rail naturally. Many stairs use both: metal where hands go, glass where eyes go.