Expressive staircases honored in The Architect's Stair competition results

Architectural competition platform Buildner just announced the results of its ‘The Architect’s Stair’ competition, an ideas challenge that invited entries to reflect on and rethink the design of stairs. Participants were tasked with considering a staircase “not as a technical solution, but as an expressive artifact — an embodiment of their design sensibility and architectural values.”

“Submissions ranged from abstract meditations on movement and perception to intricate explorations of light, rhythm, and materiality,” organizers said about the submissions. “Many entrants drew on historical references or cultural symbolism, while others projected entirely new visions that defied conventional logic or gravity. Across all proposals, the stair emerged as a site of architectural experimentation — a distilled space where function meets fiction.”

Below, we have set out the winners of the competition.

1st Prize Winner

Escape: Redesigning the New York Fire Escape by Matthew W Wilde

Jury comment: Escape: Redesigning the New York Fire Escape Stair proposes a radical rethinking of one of New York City’s most iconic yet underutilized architectural elements: the exterior fire escape. By transforming this infrastructural component into a socially activated space, the project reconceives the fire escape as a new type of vertical commons—an outdoor extension of the domestic interior. The proposal introduces a flexible attachment system that accommodates seating, planters, trellises, and shelving, supported by cantilevered steel beams bolted directly through the façade.

2nd Prize Winner

Roof Becomes Stair by Matthew W Wilde

Jury comment: Roof Becomes Stair transforms a modest restoration challenge into a sculptural intervention rooted in the layered logic of Venetian architecture. Set within the Salone Verde Art & Social Club, the project reuses redundant horizontal roof beams—removed during heritage works—to form a new timber spiral staircase connecting to a once-inaccessible attic gallery. The approach blends craftsmanship and critical reflection, embedding ideas of permanence and reuse in both form and process. A clearly defined narrative traces the timber’s journey from redundant structure to central design feature, while the staircase itself is presented as a subtle spatial discovery: from certain angles a sculptural void, from others a functional vertical passage.

3rd Prize Winner

Plumb Line Staircase by Serge Saab

Jury comment: Plumb Line Staircase proposes a dramatic intervention within a marble quarry landscape, offering a sculptural bridge-stair hybrid as both functional path and monument to extraction. The project explores the physical and symbolic depth of quarrying by inverting the act of excavation: rather than removing material, it reintroduces form in the shape of a plumb bob, recalling both the verticality of quarry walls and the tools used to shape them. The spiral stair descends from a lightweight bridge, threading through void and rock before terminating in a cantilevered platform at the water’s edge. 

Buildner Student Award

Aequilibrium by Andreas Castelletti

Jury comment: Aequilibrium reimagines the staircase as an active interface between body and architecture, emphasizing physical feedback and equilibrium rather than fixed spatial passage. Drawing from the Latin term for balance, the design replaces standard rigid treads with leather elements, creating a flexible and subtly responsive walking surface. As users traverse the stairs, their muscles adapt in real time to the material’s elasticity, establishing a kinetic dialogue between user and space. Over time, this dynamic system responds to the frequency and behavior of those who use it, blurring the line between structure and installation.

More information on all winning entries can be found on Buildner’s official website.