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Hate to be a downer but I think this idea would be a fire hazard. The stairwell just isn’t made for this use or capacity. It’s a transient, liminal space.

• willcipriano 3y ago
  Then don't use it? What if we put a big sticker on it with your comment so everyone is aware of the risk?
  • sandworm101 3y ago
    Fire codes are not just about users. Think of responders. One cannot opt out of fires codes meant to protect the firefighters who may well have to rescue people from stairwells. For instance: no clutter like office desks to trip them up. Or, no combustibles in an open, vertical, space that fire could use to spread.
    • olalonde 3y ago
      Firefighters are responsible for protecting themselves. If a situation is too dangerous, they can prioritize their safety first.
      • danielheath 3y ago
        They are literally responsible for putting themselves at some risk to save others. Discovering a situation is unsafe for firefighters once they are already in it is the norm, not the exception, when fire code violations are present.
      • sandworm101 3y ago
        Maybe if they know, but nobody keeps a record of which codes are being followed and which are not in each paticular room. Firefighters rely on building codes. They dont have time to read through user-generated exceptions documents before responding to a fire. Even if they did, such practices are akin to sovcits opting out of obeying laws they dislike. Safety codes are meaningless if not apllied to all.
        • willcipriano 3y ago
          The firefighters can also read the big sticker. We will make it fireproof. We will include the fact that fire fighters will be slower to respond because they too will read the sticker, on the sticker. Or better yet one of those "child inside" stickers but "no firefighters" so they know the building had opted out.
          • sandworm101 3y ago
            Ok. They can just ignore the people inside screaming for help. They opted out of fire codes by going into the building. They chose to burn. Utterly ridiculous.
• defrost 3y ago
  Isn't made to be used in what capacity? “One idea I’m playing around with is: someone starts at the bottom of the stairs and pitches their idea to me and if, by the top of the stairs, I like it, I fund their business.” It sounds like it was purpose built for that.
• throwaway154 3y ago
  Perhaps install a staircase for the staircase. It's just a matter of permissions.
• labster 3y ago
  It should be safe if there is a clearly marked exit route, fire doors every seven steps, and a fire escape ladder.
• deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
• krisoft 3y ago
  > Hate to be a downer but I think this idea would be a fire hazard. Which idea? What use and what capacity? The ideas in the article run a wide gamuth of different uses and proposed capacities. You are right if they would stuff the staircase full of stuff and a crowd to achieve the same density as a normal shop that would be probably unsafe. But that is far from the only thing which is mentioned in the article. One plan he mentions is a sort of meeting space where people pitch him while walking up the stairs. That would be what? No extra obstruction in the staircase and a max occupancy of 5? (How many people do you realistically want to pitch simultaneously?) There is nothing unsafe about that. The other plan he mentions is to make the stairs his private office. I don’t see the floorplans but I don’t see why you couldn’t turn the space into an office with an occupancy limit of let’s say 3. Basically an overgrown garden shed. To do that you might need to do some construction work. The very fact that he has a list of ideas going from hard to easy means to me that he is aware of the very constraint you are mentioning. About his more ambitious ideas: if he has sense he should sit down with an engineer who is well versed in the local safety regulations. Clearly the more obstructions you design in to the space the more limit you need to put on capacity. You can also imagine putting limits on how high people can go. You don’t need to use all of the stairs. You can for example use ground floor and the first landing as popup store, second landing as “crew only” storage space and block of the rest of the stairs. How many people can you let in the building then? Once he knows the shape of the limits he can work within he can start thinking to find a program which can safely work within those limits.
• inhumantsar 3y ago
  It looks like the stairwell was built large to support the apartments next to it. Without the large number of occupants who would have to be able to safely exit thru them, maybe they could probably have some small tables/desks in there? More likely tho it's a publicity stunt for the founder networking organization he runs.