Stair Railing
A handrail and a railing that read as one line, from the wall to the second floor
With interior designer Danna Colin: a handrail and stair railing as one line, in a duplex apartment in Tel Aviv. Laser measuring, laser cutting, powder coating and hidden joints, about three months from sketch to installation.
Custom stair railing and handrail · duplex apartment · Tel Aviv
Interior designer Danna Colin designed a contractor-built duplex in Tel Aviv, and came to us with the staircase at the heart of the home. The brief: a designed railing for an indoor staircase, connected to the handrail, and continuity between the first and second floors. We started by scoping the budget, the design and the materials, and from there went to research, sketches and execution.
In short: Studio Herbet cracked, planned for production, made and installed a custom handrail and stair railing for a duplex apartment in Tel Aviv, with interior designer Danna Colin: a laser-cut circle railing 105 cm high, black powder coating and hidden joints, about three months from sketch to installation.
The handrail comes out of the wall by the first step, climbs along the wall, continues along the upper flight and connects to the circle railing on the second floor.
We presented several directions that could be built in this space, and together chose the circles: an organic shape that turns into a texture when it repeats. The circles are both the pattern and what closes the gaps, so the railing meets the code at 105 cm without feeling like a safety railing.
The handrail runs on a solid partition, in straight lines and with as few bends as possible. It comes out of the wall, climbs with the stairs and connects to the railing on the second floor, so the two read as one line.
The railing bars were anchored directly into the stairs, and the handrail is fixed on a hidden joint inside the drywall. So it looks as if it comes out of the wall and goes back into it, with no connectors, no plates and no screws.
The whole plan was measured with a laser on site and fitted to a 3D model, and the files for laser cutting came straight from the model. In a contractor-built home no wall is straight and no step is identical to the next, so the measurement comes from the place, not from the plan.
Before a single bar was cut, the railing was drawn in full: a front view with dimensions, the joint details to the wall and the step, and three bar types that make up the pattern. The same files went straight to the laser cutter. You can run the same sum for any railing, how many bars and what gap between them, in the railing calculator (Hebrew), and the rise and going in the stair calculator (Hebrew).
On site we start with the anchoring: drilling into the steps, leveling, and checking every bar against the measurement taken with the laser. Only once all the bars are standing does the handrail go into the wall, and the railing is closed.
Yes. The code sets the railing height and the gaps between the bars, and the design is built inside those limits. Here the railing is 105 cm high, and the circles are both the pattern and what closes the gaps, so the railing is compliant without looking like a catalogue railing.
You design the joints before production. Here the bars were anchored directly into the stairs, and the handrail is fixed on a hidden joint inside the drywall, so it looks as if it comes out of the wall and goes back in, with not one connector in sight.
Yes, and it is worth designing them together. Here the handrail comes out of the wall by the first step, climbs along the wall and connects to the circle railing on the second floor, so the two read as one line. The stairs were measured with a laser on site, and the files for laser cutting the railing bars came from the 3D model; the bars were powder coated black. The handrail is fixed on a hidden joint inside the drywall, and about three months passed from sketch to installation.
In this project about three months passed from sketch to installation, and the installation itself took three days.
That is the usual case. Here interior designer Danna Colin brought the brief and the design of the home, and the studio cracked, planned for production, made and installed the railing and the handrail.
We present several directions that look buildable and suit the place, and choose together. The circles were chosen because they are an organic shape that turns into a texture when it repeats, and they do the job of the pattern and of closing the gaps to code at the same time.
Because in a contractor-built home no wall is straight and no step is identical to the next. Here the whole plan was measured with a laser on site, fitted to a 3D model, and the cutting files came from the model. The plan is good for starting to think; production follows the measurement from the site.
A scoping meeting: what the budget is, what the design of the home is, and which materials and options are available. Here we went from there to research, a few directions, sketches and execution, about three months from sketch to installation.
Studio Herbet is an industrial design studio in Rehovot, founded by Idan Herbet in 2016. The studio cracks the central element of the project, from lighting and railings to counters, ceilings and furniture, for interior architects, developers, hotels, restaurants and private homes, and works alongside the architect, the carpenter and the metalworker. To the studio's home page
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