Architecture & Interiors
From hand sketches to Revit documentation
A staircase occupies a unique position between architecture, interior design and furniture-scale detailing. It has to work technically while shaping the character of the space it sits in.
Staircases have been an important part of my architectural and interior design experience, providing an opportunity to explore form, proportion, structure, circulation and materiality.
This collection brings together stair projects developed during my professional practice with HPA Architects in 2002–03 and Arkistruct in 2015, showing two different approaches to design communication. HPA Architects, the practice I worked with at that time, no longer operates, and has no connection to any practice trading under that name today.
The 2002–03 projects include three-dimensional hand sketches, plans and design studies, some of which progressed from the initial drawings into stairs that were actually constructed and experienced in real architectural settings. The later Arkistruct work demonstrates the use of Revit three-dimensional modelling and architectural documentation, showing how the same design thinking translated into a digital environment.
CSR Refinery Apartments, Cutters Landing, New Farm · concept design, documentation and model making — 2002–2003
During my time with HPA Architects in 2002–03, I developed stair designs through a combination of hand-drawn three-dimensional sketches, plans, sections and design studies.
Under the direction of the practice’s design director at that time, Wayne Petrie, I carried out extensive design development and documentation for part of the buildings, along with spatial planning, design and model making.
Writing at the end of that engagement, the practice director confirmed that the work included “extensive design development and documentation parts of the buildings” and “many 3-D sketches of spaces within this complex building,” along with “concept designs, associated research, design development and detailing of the fifteen lobbies in the complex.”
On the heritage submission for the Refinery, lodged with the Department of Environment and Heritage the year before, one of the practice’s directors added a note by hand: “Thank you for the enormous effort, your contribution and analysis of the building has been of great benefit to the team.”
The note itself, written by hand on the submission.
Thinking it outThe first pass: the stair, the mezzanine and the trusses drawn together, with the questions that still needed answering written straight onto the sheet.
The three-dimensional sketches were particularly useful for exploring the character of the stair at an early stage. They allowed me to consider how the stair would sit within the surrounding architecture, how people would approach and move through it, and how materials, handrails and balustrades would contribute to the overall design.
The sheet that carries the whole ideaThe perspective explains it, and the three details underneath resolve it — how the glass panel is held, how the handrail meets the spigot, and how the timber treads sit on the steel stringer.
Two ways of holding the edgeStainless cables at 100 centres on one sheet, laminated glass in an aluminium channel on the other — the same stair, tested with two different balustrades, and each one detailed far enough to know whether it would work.
Where it landsThe view up through the trusses to the mezzanine, and the plan beside it setting out the void, the overhead beam and the floor levels the stair has to meet.
The stair inside the wholePlans and sections locating the stair within the dwelling, and the timber detailing that had to be boxed out around it.
Plans and sections were then used to develop the geometry and resolve the relationship between the stair and the building.
Some of these designs progressed beyond concept studies and documentation into stairs that were constructed and became part of completed buildings.
Drawn, and builtThe same view, twice: the hand-rendered design on the left, the finished stair on the right. The glass, the folded stringer and the line of the mezzanine are where the drawing put them.
The Refinery Precinct began as a derelict industrial shell — scorched masonry, steel columns and open plant floors.
The building before conversion.
A completed apartment in the converted warehouse — exposed brick, the dark steel truss carried across the room, polished timber floors. Photograph from the Mirvac project publication.
Seeing a stair move from a hand-drawn idea into a physical architectural element was an important part of my professional experience. It reinforced the relationship between the initial design concept, technical resolution, material selection, construction and the final built result.
The completed precinct from the river. Photograph: Mirvac project publication.
Revit 3D model · stair design · architectural documentation — 2015
My work with Arkistruct reflects a later stage of my professional practice, where digital three-dimensional modelling and Revit documentation became an important part of the design process.
Stair designs were developed using Revit to test the form and spatial relationship of the stair within the building. Three-dimensional models allowed the design to be viewed from different perspectives and helped communicate the proposal clearly before progressing into detailed documentation.
Three balustrade options tested on the same stairHorizontal wire above, toughened laminated glass, and vertical painted steel stanchions. The treads, stringer and handrail stay constant so the options can be compared directly.
The review sheet in full. Above: part plans, the three elevation options, the construction details — composite treads on a rectangular hollow-section stringer, welded gussets and tread support plates, and the connection back to the floor structure. Below: the written specification — the Australian Standards the design is built to, the tread and stringer sizes, the riser and going table, and the three balustrade styles set out side by side.
Whether the stair was developed through hand drawing or digital modelling, my approach stayed focused on the same fundamental questions:
The hand-drawn studies from the 2002–03 projects demonstrate my interest in using drawing as a way of thinking through architecture. Three-dimensional hand sketches allowed ideas to be tested quickly, particularly during early conversations and design development.
The drawings were not simply presentation images. They were part of the design process — a way of exploring proportion, structure, material and spatial relationships before the design was fully resolved.
The collection also documents a change in the tools I used throughout my professional career. The earlier projects show the immediacy of hand drawing and three-dimensional perspective sketching, while the Arkistruct projects demonstrate the precision and flexibility of Revit-based modelling and documentation.
Although the tools changed, the underlying design process remained consistent: observe, explore, test, communicate and resolve.
This transition from physical and hand-drawn thinking to digital three-dimensional modelling has continued to influence my current approach to sculpture, where I similarly think about form from multiple viewpoints and consider how a two-dimensional idea can become a three-dimensional object.
My stair design experience sits at the intersection of my architectural and interior design background. A stair is simultaneously:
This combination is one of the reasons stair design has remained particularly interesting to me throughout my professional career.
The projects shown on this page were undertaken during my professional architectural career with HPA Architects in 2002–03 and Arkistruct in 2015.
The earlier projects demonstrate hand-drawn design development and stairs that progressed into built work, while the Arkistruct projects demonstrate Revit-based three-dimensional design and architectural documentation.
They form part of my broader professional experience in architecture, interior design, three-dimensional design and construction documentation.
For enquiries, please contact lee.anchor@optusnet.com.au.