Stair Conventions

[ravells]

Could someone help me with this? I've always found it confusing.

[Redrobes]

Normally the most shadowed stair is the deepest and the smallest bar is the deepest stair. So light or full bars are top of stairs. Anyone disagree with that then ?

[Aval Penworth]

Yeah, the smaller and/or darker stairs are the lower steps. All full bright (not included in Ravs sample) stairs means 'up from this level.'

[ravells]

Yeah, the smaller and/or darker stairs are the lower steps. All full bright (not included in Ravs sample) stairs means 'up from this level.'

But then if they were up from this level, wouldn't the base of the stairs be shadowed?

[Aval Penworth]

Yea

But then if they were up from this level, wouldn't the base of the stairs be shadowed?

Well you might thinks so, but when you see stairs just depicted as full bars with no shading, it means up. I remember having the discussion with my father (an architect) 20 years ago. Thats just how it is for that particular convention. Diminishing stairs are down. Full stairs are up. (but there is no shading or tapering for up, just for down) The thinking is that if we are looking at this level then the symbols are relative to this level. If stairs taper or are shaded for both up and down then it is more confusing.

If you are using the shading method it tells you that one end is lower that the other, but it is not immediately apparent whether it leads up or down from where you are. If you rotate the stairs 180 in your samples they would mean the opposite. So that means that if you enter the stairs from the north instead of the south the symbols are misrepresentative.

Does that make sense?

[ravells]

It certainly does - and that was the other thing I found confusing both on the shadowed and tapered stair technique. The only solution I could find was to use internal walls to restrict access to the stairs so it was clear as to whether the light/dark or long/short stair was on that floor. The full stairs up or no shading up method is much clearer since they are different symbols there can be no room for confusion although with the full bar stairs, without internal walls or some other indication, the access point would still be vague (bottom left image).

[cfds]

In Germany architects cut the stairs 1m above the floor. So if you see the stairs complete it connects actual floor to the one below, otherwise it connects to the floor above. Incline is indicated by an arrow. But I have no idea how to include this into artistical floorplans and how to show mutliple stairs, like in a stairwell.

[Aval Penworth]

Well, I guess it comes down to how artsy vs practical you want to be. If you want to make it absolutely clear, I suppose you would put an arrow or even 'up to 1st floor' label. I do know of one occaison when the builders of a shopping centre built the stairs to a mezzanine in the wrong direction because the plans were ambiguous.