Spiral Stairs Sydney from Enzie Spiral Staircases

The Surprising new Monocoque stair by enzie

enzie have made spiral stairs with a column for structural support since 1974.

The nature and definition of a spiral stair is that the steps spring from the centre of the column. This design is fantastic for stairs 1880 mm diameter or smaller. If you require a larger stair that allows for two way traffic the tread area nearest the centre column on the inside can be uncomfortable due to it's steepness and lack of step depth.

To overcome this difficulty, reviewed alternative construction techniques.

Enter monocoque construction. Monocoque, from Greek for single (mono) and French for shell (coque), is a construction technique that supports structural load by using an object's external skin as opposed to using an internal frame or truss. Monocoque construction was first widely used in aircraft in the 1930s. Structural skin or stressed skin, are other terms for the same concept.

This is rather like removing the core of an apple. It's there to produce the apple, after which, it has no use. In this way, more of the area of stair tread becomes functional whilst also allowing an inner handrail to be produced by a dwarf wall on the inside to form a balustrade and the top to be a handrail.

enzie has created a monocoque stair hybrid spiral stair without the central column resulting in the removal of the very narrow part of the tread that traditionally occurs close to the column of a spiral stair.

There are several advantages in using the dwarf wall balustrade in the monocoque stair:

• The handrail becomes an integral part of the stair.
• Structurally, the dwarf wall acts as a stringer supporting the staircase. This allows for all the structural forces to be transmitted to the floor giving a clean uncluttered look.
• Being enclosed, all modesty issues are addressed using this design.
• When combined with the sculptured lining underneath, it gives a clean contemporary look.
• And with nowhere for dust to collect, low maintenance is a given.

The monocoque construction is achieved using composite materials such as steel, Timber, polyurethane, plasterboard, and plywood. These materials are CNC and Laser cut using digital information from Auto CAD files.