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Sherborne Property Services

Building & Project Management Consultant I can offer advice or oversee your building project from start to finish • Strong relationships with architects and builders • Vast knowledge of planning processes • Reasonable rates and personal service • Investment opportunities available • Land/buildings with development potential required Stuart Cox 07565 831024 sherbornepropertyservices.co.uk

THE

PITCH OF MY STAIR

Andy Foster,

Raise Architects

Early evening drinks, at home, with friends. Outside, the temperature drops as the sun descends behind a distant oak. In our firstfloor sitting room, the conversation warms up nicely, and everyone’s face reflects the sun’s deepening glow. Laughter. Chat. Good wine. It’s going to be an enjoyable night.

Despite the convivial atmosphere, the re-filling of glasses and enjoyment of the conversation, I can’t help thinking about the stair we all ascended a few moments earlier. You see, my stair acts as a trigger to memories of me designing the house, to the many decisions made, and the reasons why things turned out as they did. It’s strange how these involuntary associations in buildings occur. You walk into a room familiar from childhood and are immediately transported back to that time. You grasp a door handle and instantly recall a momentous event that happened beyond that threshold.

It happens with me and my stair every time, and the first thing that springs to mind is that its pitch is precisely 40 degrees. Most domestic staircases have a pitch of between 37 and 42 degrees. Why did I choose 40? That’s largely down to the aesthetics of numbers. The round number 40 is more pleasing than its near neighbours, 39 and 41. And infinitely better than the ugly 39.5 or 40.5. This preference may seem odd given that you would never know, but I have to insert the number in a small box in the computer programme. And I have to write it on the drawings and in the specification. I feel happier when typing out ‘40’ than I do any of its approximate alternatives.

The rise and going of each step of the stair is 197mm and 235mm, respectively. This geometry conforms to a relationship worked out by a 17thcentury French architect-engineer named Francois Blondel. Most people think that steepness is critical for a satisfactory stair design, but this is only partially true. Blondel established that walking cadence is also important and his equation, which appears in most building codes worldwide, also keeps stride length within a comfortable range.

I wanted the diagonal line of the stair’s stringer, the top edge of the glass balustrade and the handrail fixed to the wall to follow the line of the vaulted ceiling above. The ceiling follows the roof’s pitch, and it is no coincidence that this is also 40 degrees. Internally, the ceiling line needs to allow for adequate headroom over the stair and be proportionate to the size of the rooms elsewhere. I also needed to consider what to do with the volume of space below the usable height.

Externally, the pitch of the roof has a significant impact on the appearance of the house. This is most apparent in the gable elevations, whose proportions result partly from the roof pitch, but also from the height of the walls and the building’s overall width. The issue of proportion is an interesting one. Steeper pitched roofs are more elegant than shallower ones, but historical style is important too. The roofs of Georgian houses are frequently shallow, whereas Victorian and Edwardian houses can be relatively steep. The roofs of suburban housing of the twentieth century are varied. Often, they are shallow, as is the case in many bungalows. But if the chosen design has a Scandinavian influence, the roof may be very steep. Hence the choice of roof pitch cannot be disassociated from historical trends. The same goes for national and regional patterns.

The location of my house is on the edge of a traditional village. The roofs of the original houses are finished in slate and have roof pitches of 50 to 55 degrees. Initially constructed with thatch, these roofs are relatively steep to shed rainwater. I had to decide what was appropriate in a location away from the village centre and closer to agricultural buildings with varied roof materials and shallower pitches. I chose to be sympathetic with the village by finishing the roof in slate but felt no need to replicate the angle.

By now, the sun has long since disappeared below the horizon, and with its descent, the conversation has descended too. Meanwhile, I’m still thinking about my stair. The story of which turns out to be intimately related to that of my roof. Which, in turn, is linked to the rest of the house design and its village location. But underpinning everything is the elusive question of aesthetics and this depends, to a large extent, on your frame of reference. And I can’t help thinking that had I switched to measuring the pitch of my stair in radians rather than degrees, my pleasing round number 40 would become the unsightly 0.698132. And, consequently, I would be compelled to start over again.

Further reading: practicalarchitecture.com/blog/the-geometry-of-acomfortable-staircase

LUXURY LIVING IN SHERBORNE

J&SB Construction are pleased to announce the launch of two new town centre properties.We have set very high standards of design and construction over the last twenty years and these two luxury homes proudly conform to our principles. This exclusive small development consists of a large three-bedroomed house and a four-bedroomed house.

Both properties feature:

• Master bedroom suites on the upper floor as well as a study/bedroom suite on the ground floor • Family bathrooms • Ultra modern kitchen-living rooms, fully equipped with quality appliances • Separate drawing rooms • Full central heating with gas fired boilers and underfloor heating systems • Car ports, landscaped gardens and private patio areas You are most welcome to speak with us direct to discuss the properties in more details and arrange a private viewing.