Sexy Stairs

Gianni Cavaler had a dream. He had a dream of reinventing the utilitarian stair into one of design significance - to each his own, right? He followed that dream and his Italian company - because all sexy products come from Italy -  Edilco has done just that. They started with precast concrete and were able to create a single element that includes tread, riser, and in the design below even the balustrade. All the concrete designs are even self supporting via the "inner spiral well."



In the 80's they started looking at other materials including metal and glass...

And have experimented with other things such as plexiglass and

fiberglass and other shapes such as DNA...

That has got to defy a handful of codes. 

Metal Panel Innovations

ATAS has introduced horizontal metal panel elements. Both linear metal panels are rainscreen systems with the Versa-Seam being the plank-reveal look and - more exciting - the Versa-Lok being the shingle look. Versa-Seam comes in different widths and Versa-Lok comes in different widths and lengths that can be randomly mixed for a dynamic effect. I wasn't able to find information on their website (though they have plenty other products to check out) but did find a few articles.

Even more exciting is Dri-Design's Ombrae panels. These panels use computer technology to turn images - photos, logos, graphics - into "pixels" in the panel. These pixels are incomplete perforations that could change in size and angle in order to reflect light differently. The effect is a large scale "mural" or digital graphic that interacts with the sun or the artificial lighting. There are a few photos and a video here but it looks like it hasn't been used too much yet. Such great possibilities!