This coming week and the next we will have a discussion on stairs and egress in your buildings/home.

Please read through this post and follow these instructions:

POST #1:

  1. Develop a 3d sketch of your building where you live and diagram 3 dimensionally the egress stairs/fire escapes in your building. During class we will pinup and discuss. Can you understand how the egress works from the sketch?

EXAMPLE:

My building provides two means of egress for my apartment. One is the main stair (open, not enclosed as a fire stair) in the core of the building, wrapping around the elevator, leading to the lobby and then out through the building entrance. The other means of egress is via a fire escape accessed outside the windows. This uses ship ladders to connect to the platforms below and then down to the sidewalk. Apartments on the rear of the building also use fire escapes to get to the rear yard but then must use passages through the court yards (not shown in this diagram) to get to the sidewalk.

POST #2:

  1. Take 3 photos of the egress stair you intend to draw.
  2. Using a tape measure, measure the egress stair (overall space of the stairway, width of each part of the stair, riser height, tread depth, hand rail height, landing depth and width…)
  3. Sketch carefully at 1/4″ scale a plan view of the stair (make sure you show the cut line and the stair going up to next floor as well as stair coming up from below. See Ching for drawing standards.)
  4. Sketch carefully at 1/4″ scale a section view of the stair using the plan sketch as an underlay. Be sure they coordinate. The section should include at least 2 full floors of the stair plus the continuation of the stair above and/or below.
  5. During class we will pinup and discuss. Have photos available to view on your phone.

Due date for initial sketch post: March 4

Due date for stair photos, plan, and section post: March 11.