“If I were commissioning the interior of any kind of store and someone brought me blueprints including glass staircases, I’d tell him to take a hike,” she wrote then. “I wouldn’t give him a second shot. If he’s not intuitive enough to grasp that women in skirts will be uncomfortable walking upstairs, clouded glass or not, then what other errors has he made in his design?” — Los Angeles Times
Last month, LA Times culture writer Carolina Miranda tweeted that “all male architects should be required to navigate their own buildings in a skirt”, recalling the time she walked on the transparent floors of a Diego Portales University library and happened to be wearing a skirt. Others responded to her tweet saying they should also wear heels and carry babies, and also called out the see-through walkways in some Apple Store locations and certain architecture schools (you know who you are).
“The tweet reignited a debate about an ongoing design issue in many public spaces — that some of them simply do not keep women in mind,” Miranda writes in her article above.
28 Comments
I hate glass floors in general. They feel precarious and make people uncomfortable.
You know all of the people? You must be a busy fella.
There goes the .000001 percent of buildings with translucent stairs or floors. Ruined by sexist bastards.
https://www.google.com/search?q=glass+stairs&rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS793US793&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiVqrWppqXcAhVL4oMKHYoNBTwQ_AUICigB&biw=1920&bih=985
Exactly.
39,000,000 images....
Many of which are in residences.
Wow, that's a lot! Here's a bunch of Sasquatch. https://www.google.com/search?q=sasquatch&rlz=1C1GGRV_enUS754US767&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjtgKKC7abcAhXKwVQKHShfCUYQiR56BAgMEBw&biw=1920&bih=974
And if you remove the images of only glass guardrails, and stairs in private homes (where they would have been commissioned), and duplicates, etc, there are something fewer than 39 million glass stairs.
My point had to do with representativeness. If we want to talk about a lack of responsiveness by architects to big segments of the population-- that's an important subject. Restrooms, fixtures, entrances, lighting, signage, and other elements are much likelier offenders than glass stairs.
... But that isn't a point in favor of glass stairs.
This is just the tip of the iceberg. Human factors are widely ignored and signage is then used as an afterthought to compensate. Bad design is the norm - practical, functional, efficient design that serves human needs is rare.
The sorry state of the built environment is a reflection of the sorry state of architecture schools.
I disagree. The sorry state of the built environment is a reflection of the value monied interests put on the people they hire for "design." .
It's both.
It shows how out of touch with human beings the profession is.
I don’t care if some weirdo gets their jollies looking up my skirt through a glass floor. But like Erik I also hate glass floors for their intentional discomfort. I dislike the base - but not the crown - of the former Citicorp building in New York for the same reason.
The parent holding the hand of a toddler while carrying an infant is a totally common user of public space. One wonders why we haven’t done a better job - not as architects, but as a society - of accommodating them.
Donna, the Citicorp building base was made that way because they could not demolish the church occupying the site.... or something like that.
Agree, Donna.
I do think there is a kind of perverse anti-human streak in much of the architectural avant-garde. It's a kind of "let's see how far I can abuse your natural sensibilities" attitude that results in architecture that is designed to be abrasive or disorienting. Glass floors are a perfect example of this.
Floors should be solid. Stable, reliable, firm. They should represent the archetype of Earth. Firmitas.
And what about us tall people? Basically every bus or train seat is too small with too little space in front, no regular airplane seat fits, bumping heads wherever I go.
I like glass floors though, I like the thrill of seeing the abyss beneath and tickling my vertigo. Don't like the sound a glass floor makes or its smoothness, I prefer metal grates as a transparent floor option, but those are especially tricky with high heels I guess.
I don't know why carrying a baby and holding the hand of a toddler would be impossible on a glass floor, could somebody elaborate?
My toddler encountered a glass floor for the first time this weekend... and he was very, very hesitant to walk on it. He stopped, touched it, looked up at us, then walked around it.
The navigating of buildings *in general* with a toddler and an infant is the concern - not specific to glass floors.
I'd say the navigating of life with a toddler and infant, but thanks both for clarification :)
Will take the little one to an Apple store for an experiment one of these days.
As with everything, this can all be reduced to economics. Flashy styling over functional design for sales and marketing, no legroom to jam more seats in, etc.
Reminds me of this Chinese glass walkway with people crying.. hahaha— glass stairs and floors are a rarely used gimmick. an effective and memorable marketing tactic. Most apple stores placed mats on them, and have side elevators for those that don’t like them.
But yeah, let’s lament the “architecture avant-garde” ...... this is why people don’t like the media. Taking itself way to seriously
I guess the glass bottom pools hanging over the edge of the buildings are out too? Those are kind of interesting in a Darwin-selection kind of way.
Value engineered and contracted to the lowest bidder no doubt.
https://youtu.be/7iuvzn5m9vA
I need the spec of those curtain wall mullions
These certainly raise the stakes for peeing in the pool.
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