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I want to make a zine themed around office stairwells. I'm interested in the way they end up fulfilling roles that aren't provided by the corporate structure of office buildings. I've seen them used as impromptu meeting rooms, phone booths, prayer rooms and airing cupboards. Although corporate they are overlooked in branding and refurbishment projects leaving them sparse and functional places. Frequently windowless, with daylight simulation bulbs and exit signs illuminated at all hours regardless of occupation. They're sometimes designated as literal "refuge points" where workers who are unable to walk down stairs in the case of a fire are advised to wait for rescue. I want to think about how they can serve as corporate refuge points in less dramatic situations.

I'll accept anything that can be printed. Submit by uploading photographs or visual art to imgur and linking here. Text pieces should be either pasted in as forum posts or uploaded to pastebin and linked here.

Deadline will be the end of January.







If this works out I can think of one or two more issues based around this theme of office refuge but lets pace ourselves (given the unimpressive track record we have on zines here)

People asking if their uni stairwells qualify: If they meet the requirement of being office stairwells then sure.

'The first little throb of "Lolita" went through me late in 1939 or early in 1940, in Paris.. somehow prompted by a newspaper story about an ape in the Jardin des Plantes, who, after months of coaxing by a scientist, produced the first drawing ever charcoaled by an animal: this sketch showed the bars of the poor creature's cage.'
-VN

I reject your narrow focus of only stairwells as the epicenter of corporate refuge.

Later issues will deal with other zones of corporate refuge. I am in this for the long haul (as retirement ages continue to rise)

Not zine quality but related to the topic.

I would just like to add this because I took this photo this past summer while I was working at the Bradbury in LA. It's not very good because I was a little rushed using a film camera with a lot of police around (even though I had no reason to worry).

Kinda the opposite of what one would think of a dreary office stairwell.

In the stairwell in my building, for reasons unknown to me but likely relating to the funding concerns of public universities, none of the windows have glass—just metal screens and bars. There's a drain in the concrete floor in case water gets in. It's cold in the stairwell.

Hi guys, thanks for submitting your stairwells I think I'm going to close photo submissions for now as that's probably enough

I would really like to have some other works in the zine, so If anyone wants to submit anything else then I'll extend the deadline to the end of February. I brainstormed some ideas that people could try:

- Story of omeone who enters the stairwell then exits on the wrong floor
- In depth description of the stairwell, paint colour, quality of light
- transcripts of stairwell phonecalls
- Log of everything that happens in the stairwell over an hour
- Stairwell jokes
- Formal specifications of a stairwell
-- overall dimensions
-- decor
-- number of flights
-- stair dimensions
-- stair material + construction
-- number of lights, type, style
-- banister specification (height/material etc)
- Rendering of stairwell in whatever medium (paint, hammer, biro, photoshop, oils, whatever)
- Stick a link to an online questionnaire on each floor of the stairwell and see if anyone answers it
- Stairwell cartoon (crudely drawn is OK)(extra points for drawing it on office stationary)
- Survey of organic life found in stairwell (plants? insects?)

Why did the pilot enjoy the stairwell?

I was going up my stairwell to my dorm room and pondering some distracting thought, I do not remember what it was that made me loose my focus but I ended up going up and extra flight. As I exited and made my way to where my room was supposed to be based on memory of the identical floor plan nothing broke my distraction or set off an alarm. I walked all the way to the end of the hall where my room was supposed to be and went to use my key to open the door. When the lock didn't turn I got confused and tried again. Only then did I look up and notice door decorations that were unfamiliar, I checked the number on the door and discovered I had gone up an extra floor to a girls room and now appeared like I was breaking in to a stranger's room in a girls wing. As I left I noticed all the different decorations that I should have seen, I also tried to come up with an explanation in case anyone asked who I was or why I was there. I escaped to the refuge of the stairwell and returned to my correct floor.

Edit: I don't know if this story qualifies but it just happened to me the other day and I stumbled upon this thread. Feel free to ignore it if you please. Just felt like sharing a bit of my life. I haven't made that mistake again since then.

Is this still happening?

Hi guys, please submit publicly accessible corporate stairwell addresses to my list: https://goo.gl/forms/QA5rudhOpeLF9nmz1

All data will be published in my stairwell zine. Please pass this onto your friends. This isn't a joke. Please fill out the form and pass it onto your friends. By publicly accessible I mean without any locked doors barring access during working hours. Reception desks are OK as long as they aren't too aggro.