sense of place: stairwell

Taking a break from morsels this week, to introduce a new topic:  

Sense of Place:  
In environmental education there is a focus on finding a "sense of place" defined as identifying deeply with the area in which you live, understanding its biodiversity, and protecting its natural state.  Artists speak of developing a sense of place within their work, and historians identify a sense of place in a connection with one's heritage in a particular area.   

In coming to terms with the space we fill in this world, and in celebrating my love of the elements of design, I am going to begin regularly posting about the spaces we keep, our sense of place, if you will.
The spaces will mostly be in our own home, some away from home, and occasionally home designs that I really dig from elsewhere.  

If you feel inspired to share a space of yours too, please do.  Just leave a link to your spot in comments section for others to share.  I'd love to see other people's ideas.


Stairwell: 

Feng Shui has a lot to say about staircase placement, shape, and style.  I think ours breaks every rule.
Even so, I love this place in our house.  It is high and open, allowing for framed views of various parts of the house, while its central position creates a separation between the public and more private areas of an otherwise open floor plan.  I feel as though it is a place full of movement and energy, allowing for a relationship between the two floors that might not exist were the staircase more enclosed.  There are no windows in our upstairs hall, or stairway, but the secondary light from so many other sources is striking, particularly as the sun moves from window to window throughout the day.

I love the rawness of the steel pipe railings, maple post, and the concrete block chimney; and the contrast provided by the soft yellow pine treads.  I love the sense of all of the elements anchoring the center of our home:  fire (from the wood stove and chimney) earth (in the concrete and wood), air (in the open space) and in some sense water in the movement of energy and of course people all day long between the two levels.

Yup, this is one of my favorite spaces.