Add To Collection
Add to Collection
Next Step
Next Step
View Original
Add To Collection
Add to Collection
View Original
Add To Collection
Add to Collection
View Original
Add To Collection
Add to Collection
View Original
Add To Collection
Add to Collection
View Original
Add To Collection
Add to Collection
View Original
Add To Collection
Add to Collection
View Original
Add To Collection
Add to Collection
View Original
Add To Collection
Add to Collection
View Original
Add To Collection
Add to Collection
View Original
Add To Collection
Add to Collection
Next Step
Firm
Next Step was first installed as the central attraction at a house and garden fair. What makes a good city (or a good fair) is not the quality of the buildings or booths which compose
it, but the quality and interest of the movements it facilitates. Next Step is a celebration of
pedestrian circulation. It is lifted off the ground, just barely touching the earth at each end,
inviting visitors to slip beneath it unimpeded.
Unimpeded, but not unmoved – it’s difficult to walk casually past the house, since it seems to float
overhead at an acute angle, rather than squatting in the mean grid of cardboard walls and
excessive lighting that trade shows cultivate. Next Step is positioned askew of the commercial
booths, stretching out diagonally above its plaza, to emphasize that the ground beneath is not like
the rest of the fair – it’s a space for relaxation and entertainment, for the joys of social interaction
with strangers, not a space for hard sales.
The interior of Next Step is a staircase, with its steps stretched to define surfaces for the rituals of
everyday life: parking, cooking, eating, entertaining, cleaning, and sleeping. These serve the
functions we’ve come to expect of a garage, kitchen, dining room, living room, bathroom, and
bedroom, but are arranged in a strict sequence to emphasize the relationships between them, with
the diagram of the house constantly re-inscribed on the inhabitant’s lifestyle. The spaces aren’t
separated by walls, but by a series of steps between them, beckoning visitors to climb to the next
step. More private, familiar functions at the top end of the house are divided by fewer steps, so
the experience of moving from room to room becomes more comfortable between the “homier”
spaces.
At each transition, a step or steps are stretched to become a definitive furniture element: the
cooking area’s countertop and cabinets are pulled from the steps to the eating area; the eating
table is a section of floor cantilevered from the entertaining area, which appropriates yet another
step for its couch.
A continuous shelf, idiosyncratically divided to address both the horizontal planes of the steps, and
the incline of the house’s structure, lines one wall. Its depth increases gradually towards the top
of the house, falling into deeper shadows as the spaces become more private.
Next Step uses only very basic building materials, ubiquitous in the contemporary market. Some
that are usually hidden are used in a very direct, honest manner here, like OSB shelves, cabinets, and step risers, and a ceiling made of tufted fiberglass insulation, both of which
contribute to the soft ambiance of the interior. Wooden flooring is left exposed at
its edges, to reveal that it’s not solid wood, but the more ecologically friendly, and technically
superior, engineered wood. Walls are paneled in three shades of translucent polycarbonate and
expanded metal, which filter the color and lights of the fair outside, not quite blocking them out,
but dimming them into a pleasant abstraction. The steel truss which enables the long span below
the house also gives the facades their visual interest.
it, but the quality and interest of the movements it facilitates. Next Step is a celebration of
pedestrian circulation. It is lifted off the ground, just barely touching the earth at each end,
inviting visitors to slip beneath it unimpeded.
Unimpeded, but not unmoved – it’s difficult to walk casually past the house, since it seems to float
overhead at an acute angle, rather than squatting in the mean grid of cardboard walls and
excessive lighting that trade shows cultivate. Next Step is positioned askew of the commercial
booths, stretching out diagonally above its plaza, to emphasize that the ground beneath is not like
the rest of the fair – it’s a space for relaxation and entertainment, for the joys of social interaction
with strangers, not a space for hard sales.
The interior of Next Step is a staircase, with its steps stretched to define surfaces for the rituals of
everyday life: parking, cooking, eating, entertaining, cleaning, and sleeping. These serve the
functions we’ve come to expect of a garage, kitchen, dining room, living room, bathroom, and
bedroom, but are arranged in a strict sequence to emphasize the relationships between them, with
the diagram of the house constantly re-inscribed on the inhabitant’s lifestyle. The spaces aren’t
separated by walls, but by a series of steps between them, beckoning visitors to climb to the next
step. More private, familiar functions at the top end of the house are divided by fewer steps, so
the experience of moving from room to room becomes more comfortable between the “homier”
spaces.
At each transition, a step or steps are stretched to become a definitive furniture element: the
cooking area’s countertop and cabinets are pulled from the steps to the eating area; the eating
table is a section of floor cantilevered from the entertaining area, which appropriates yet another
step for its couch.
A continuous shelf, idiosyncratically divided to address both the horizontal planes of the steps, and
the incline of the house’s structure, lines one wall. Its depth increases gradually towards the top
of the house, falling into deeper shadows as the spaces become more private.
Next Step uses only very basic building materials, ubiquitous in the contemporary market. Some
that are usually hidden are used in a very direct, honest manner here, like OSB shelves, cabinets, and step risers, and a ceiling made of tufted fiberglass insulation, both of which
contribute to the soft ambiance of the interior. Wooden flooring is left exposed at
its edges, to reveal that it’s not solid wood, but the more ecologically friendly, and technically
superior, engineered wood. Walls are paneled in three shades of translucent polycarbonate and
expanded metal, which filter the color and lights of the fair outside, not quite blocking them out,
but dimming them into a pleasant abstraction. The steel truss which enables the long span below
the house also gives the facades their visual interest.
Product Spec Sheet
Were your products used?
Join as a manufacturer to add your products.