Stairs to Chairs

Jonas Altenried and Paul Panse 

This project reimagines a hotel staircase slated for demolition, turning its Jura marble steps and steel railings into simple, high-end objects. Inspired by the railing’s form, we designed with minimal labor and without altering the stone, keeping it reusable for future projects. The process became a lesson in seeing the creative potential of existing, irregular materials.

Material Overview

The steps are made of Jura marble from the Franconian Alps in Bavaria, a dense yet soft stone (2500 kg/m³) ideal for polishing but sensitive to weathering. Dimensions: 1120 × 320 × 30 mm, lifespan ~50 years, cost ~80 €/m².

The railing uses two steel tube types—25 mm and 50 mm diameter—both coated in brown paint.

Test Extraction
On site, we carefully dismantled and removed stone slabs for reuse.

Outdoor Furniture
We repurpose the round and square railing elements by combining them with reclaimed stone slabs. Each piece is carefully extracted and matched with the right number of slabs to create four unique outdoor furniture designs.

Indoor Furniture
Using only the straight sections of the railing, we create a simple yet elegant piece of furniture in just a few precise steps.

Stone Plugs
We drill plugs from the stone slabs for all components, sealing the cut ends of the pipes.