To combine the unity of a central plan with the direction a church needs, plan the space as an oval, set across the axis to widen the view of the altar, or along it to lead the eye towards it.
Rules · Stairs · Plans · Light
Where to put the staircase
Place the staircase by three tests: its relation to the principal rooms it serves; keeping the main axial communications free of obstruction; and light, for itself and, as a well of light, for the corridors and vestibules around it.
Stratton adds that the student must know the elementary rules of construction, in particular the ratio between tread and riser, but that his plates are about arrangement: straight, returned, three-way, circular and elliptical flights in rectangular, square and curved halls.
A grand staircase in a civic building should impress at once by its scale and spaciousness; a staircase should be visited and studied in the building itself.
Related rules
Let the wall of a façade curve in plan (concave, convex, concave) so that the front answers the street, the light and the space within, and the order bends with it.
Light the climax of a Baroque interior (the altar or the dome) from windows the visitor cannot see, so that it seems to glow of itself.
Proportion every step so that twice its height plus its depth equals the length of a natural pace on the level: two feet, or 24 pouces.
2 r + g = 24 pouces ≈ 65 cm (modern practice: 60–66 cm)
Make the stair of a palace a processional space: one broad flight rising to a landing, then turning back in two flights either side to arrive at the principal floor beneath a single great vault.
Give the flight of steps before a temple an odd number, so that one who starts with the right foot will also set the right foot first on the top.
Cite this page Chris Paton, “Where to put the staircase”, The Textbook of Architecture, https://textbookofarchitecture.com/rule/stratton-staircase-place. Text, drawings and models licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0.