Helix Bound
Drawing ResearchPublished in Domus, June 2021, “The Power of Geometry,” edited by Tadao Ando
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/a1f4409d02cbf6b9308dbe8d20e28fd7ec3d5e4ba1dc2ef295a1d41807f450d1/HelixBound_composite.png)
These drawings isolate a spiral stair at the Rinascente department store in Rome, Italy, designed by Franco Albini and Franca Helg in 1961. The stair occupies a spatial remainder: a void at the corner of the building whose oddly shaped perimeter sits between the geometric purity of the massing and the site. A distorted helix, the stair is squeezed by the forces that are out of immediate sight and held up by a lattice-like arrangement of steel columns and beams, sometimes concealed, sometimes plainly visible.