Active Stairs
Stairwells are often dreary and uninviting, and can provide a blank canvas for building owner, resident, tenant and community expression.
Active Stairs design in existing buildings uses colour and artwork to reflect the building design, context and tenant profile.
Designs incorporate bright and inviting colours that provide meaning and can include health messaging and incentives for taking the stairs. Designs can be multilingual, incorporate pictures and include positive messaging to highlight the benefits of taking the stairs.
Along with enhancing the design of the stairwell, Active Stairs design also includes, way finding, and stair use prompts at elevators and promotions and incentives to encourage stair use.
active stairs - design challenge
The purpose of the ‘Active Stairs’ design challenge is to demonstrate the connection between health and the built environment and serve as a learning example of how, by creatively reimagining and animating our environments, we can influence healthier behaviours and inspire other projects in the community.
2024 design challenge
The 2024 Active Stairs - Design Concept Challenge was offered to George Brown College - Interior Design program (3rd year) students this spring.
The sponsors for the 2024 Active Stairs Design Concept Challenge were - George Brown College, Attivo Designs and Northam Realty Advisors Limited, which contributed the cash prize for the winning submission and offered their building at 483 Bay St. in Toronto as the model for the design implementation.
Winning Designer
The winning design was created by - June Lee - a current student of Interior Design at George Brown College. June’s prize was $2,000.00 to prepare the final output of her winning design in a format and medium suitable for reproduction and implementation.
Active Stairs - design concepts
George Brown College – Interior Design Technology program 3rd year students were assigned a project to create and prepare Active Stairs design concepts. The project aim is to demonstrate the connection between health and the built environment and serve as a catalyst for the widespread creation of Active Stairs.
The project was initiated and coordinated by Attivo Designs and the course instructor provided the guidance and support to include the project as part of the 3rd year course requirement. The learning outcomes of the assignment centre on the students demonstrating the ability to effectively apply the elements and principles of healthy and active stair design and the broader goal is to raise awareness of the benefits and ease of taking the stairs.
Project clients for the assignment - Toronto Community Housing Corporation (multi-residential) and Morguard (commercial office) - provided building access and documentation to facilitate the design project. Students were organized in two groups based on the building type and clients had the opportunity to review and comment on the students’ design concepts and consider next steps for implementation.