The History of Stairs

Can you think of a more useful and functional invention that the staircase? The electric kettle must surely come a close second, followed by the advent of the electric bike that takes the sweat out of pedalling but the stairs surely must be the most useful.

They allow us to safely move between levels, easily and quickly. Having a steep slope, with no purchase will affect your balance. Only the very fittest who could take a decent ‘run up’ would get up to the top; anyone infirm, unfit, the very young or the elderly wouldn’t be able to move as well to the top of the plane.

You can search for most things on the Internet and receive an instantaneous answer but not to the question why or why or where the staircase was first invented?

The first steps are thought to be outdoor ones, created by people living in the wilds of various continents and were platforms, cut away in to the hillsides that made it easier for people to run and hide, from predators or other people. It is easier – and safer -  to run up stairs, than it is a steep slope

Although you do have better luck searching for ‘the first glass staircase’.

The first patented glass staircase was, unfortunately, not in a Perth property but in the Apple store in New York. It doesn’t just take you up one level either; it goes up again to the 2nd floor. Surely worth a visit just to admire the functional aesthetics of something as beautiful as a glass staircase, if not to purchase the latest gadget?

In an ‘ordinary’ property – in other words, anything but a grand mansion, church or castle – a staircase or ‘stairsteppes’ as they were sometimes known, were nothing grand like the glass staircase to be found in New York. They were a simple structure, usually a rickety wooden ladder, where one would precariously balance.

Slowly, over time as house design and architecture changed, as due to shortage of land and space in burgeoning cities, houses started to be built with levels and fixed staircases became the norm – usually straight, wooden staircases.

Grander houses merited grander staircases; they were usually sweeping, grand affairs with curves and wide stair treads that allowed the gentry to make an entrance into their own party or social gathering.

And from this, the use of materials in staircases started to take shape. As technology developed and grew, the use of different materials meant that the choice of staircases became even better. No longer do we have to opt for wooden stairs – we can mix materials.

If you are looking for replacement staircases for any Perth property why not opt for a glass staircase? It seems odd that there is no definitive history of the staircase but one source says that the staircase was not invented until 1948 by Swiss architect Werner Bösendörfer. He did something marvellous with a staircase at the White House.

Not even he could imagine the beauty and the functionality that a glass staircase can bring to any Perth property. As well as a pleasing, glamorous ‘look’, they are still functional for all member of the family. Non-slip glass treads, beautifully wooden and metal balustrades and handrails all add to a glass staircase now very much being an option for your Perth pad.