by Jamie Fisher
When confronted with a stubborn
layout problem, I go right to the stairs.
Of course, stairs can be frustrating in
their inflexibility. You can't cut across a
stair. You can't access a stair except at a
landing. You can't make stairs serve a
second function, or furnish them, or
make them shorter or narrower to suit
the space at hand, or cut back the headroom
to suit the floor plan above. Stairs
insist on a certain amount of space, and
they don't share well.
On the other hand, stairs can do marvelous
things (besides getting us up and
down). Their configuration drives the
organization of a house, determining
where you arrive at a floor