2024
architectural intervention, existing stairs, conservation techniques, concrete, natural binder, compressed soil

Are stairs the most convenient way to climb uphill? They are a cruel invention – yet one simple and functional enough to have survived eight thousand years in an almost unchanged form. When designing an estate spread across hills, it is hard to avoid constructing stairways. However, Niedźwiednik’s architects aimed to ease residents’ movement through this demanding terrain by designing flights of stairs to follow curves. Although this made the stairs longer, it also created a gentler ascent.

The Góralska stairway was not featured in the estate’s original design, and it does not fully align with the architectural concept of Baum and Dzierżanowska. The stairs are steep and lengthy: with 148 steps, 17 landings, and – despite the railings – climbing them is exhausting. A 20-metre ascent over a distance of 100 metres is exactly the same gradient as the route between Morskie Oko lake and Szpiglasowa Pass in the Tatra Mountains.

The stairway has been closed for about 15 years. Damaged in many places, it is overgrown with moss and vegetation. In its current state, it resembles a monument rather than a functional element of the estate’s architecture. Although officially closed, local residents still occasionally use it, treading a narrow path – a new route within the old stairway. Following meandering curves, it is much gentler, as originally envisioned by the estate’s architects.

For NARRACJE, the path was cleared, and cavities in the steps were filled with a mix of concrete fragments found nearby and natural binder – minimising intervention in this architectural and natural ecosystem. The new stairway now meanders within the old one, highlighting the gap between the estate’s original design principles and some of the implemented solutions. Closed (and thus immortalised as a monument), the stairs may remain as a permanent ruin – or a suggestion of the most convenient way to climb uphill.

ZUZANNA SKURKA is a designer and materials researcher, graduate of the Royal Danish Academy – Architecture, Design, Conservation. Her transdisciplinary practice focuses on broadening knowledge of materials and ways of experiencing them. Using simple objects and systems, she seeks to imagine solutions for the (anti)architecture of the future.