That’s a good question, because now that you asked it I remembered that there were some buildings that did indeed have that odd number of steps you mention, on the ground floor going up to the first floor, that is. I remember that I was finding that strange.
Each block of apartments had 16 steps between two floors. The building we were living in had those 16 steps “split” in two, that is you were climbing 8 steps from a given floor, there was a small “platform” of 3-4 meters, and then you’d climb another 8 steps until the next floor itself, after a change of direction “architected” through that platform I mentioned. And then there were the bulldings where you’d climb 16 steps straight. I liked the 8+8 version better, imo it gave the architect the chance to add more and larger windows to the staircase, and hence more light, the 16 steps straight staircases seemed to have smaller windows, hence less light.
Back to the odd number of steps on the ground floor, I think there were 15 or 17, can’t remember exactly how many.
Interesting discussion, I have to admit, I sometime compare the staircases from today’s buildings to those I knew as a kid, and it seems that today they don’t care about light coming in or “ergonomy” or anything like that (there’s also the very interesting discussion of the “perfect” height for a given step).
I know exactly what you mean by 16 steps split in 8 going two different directions, with the window platform between them. The current block I am living in has this setup in Sofia. Built in the 60s with the first steps on the ground floor being 7 instead of 8.
How old are you if I may ask? I am fairly young and have no memory of when anything was built. But I often walk around and try to think of what they were going for and the purpose behind many things. There seems to have been a lot of logic to simple things, like you mentioned with light and ergonomy, it gives a sense of careful design and forethought.
Also I will add, the block started with 3 floors, and then a fourth was added on top of it afterwards, not sure if that was an anomaly or the norm.
Early 40s, I now live in Bucharest but I grew up in a town besides the Danube, Bulgaria was on the other side.
> But I often walk around and try to think of what they were going for and the purpose behind many things
There was definitely a "purpose" behind most of the stuff they built back then, especially in the '60s and the '70s (in the '80s things were already getting tougher from an economic pov, so at some point they started cramming apartments building close to apartments building in the name of better use of the land, or something like that).
> Also I will add, the block started with 3 floors, and then a fourth was added on top of it afterwards
The norm here was ground floor + 4 floors in the small and medium towns, plus in some neighbourhoods of the big cities, including Bucharest, or ground floor + 10 floors in the bigger cities and in Bucharest. There are also buildings with ground floor + 8 floors (I now live in one, on the 8th floor), but they were not the norm.
Each block of apartments had 16 steps between two floors. The building we were living in had those 16 steps “split” in two, that is you were climbing 8 steps from a given floor, there was a small “platform” of 3-4 meters, and then you’d climb another 8 steps until the next floor itself, after a change of direction “architected” through that platform I mentioned. And then there were the bulldings where you’d climb 16 steps straight. I liked the 8+8 version better, imo it gave the architect the chance to add more and larger windows to the staircase, and hence more light, the 16 steps straight staircases seemed to have smaller windows, hence less light.
Back to the odd number of steps on the ground floor, I think there were 15 or 17, can’t remember exactly how many.
Interesting discussion, I have to admit, I sometime compare the staircases from today’s buildings to those I knew as a kid, and it seems that today they don’t care about light coming in or “ergonomy” or anything like that (there’s also the very interesting discussion of the “perfect” height for a given step).