laser-cut steel stair railing in nervous system's new studio recalls plant tissue morphology

nervous system has created an algorithmically-generated, laser-cut steel stair railing for their new studio located in the catskill mountains of new york. drawing inspiration from plant tissue morphology, the design emerges continuously along the 40 ft (12.2 m) long railing, moving through patterns of different scales.

all images courtesy of nervous system, unless stated otherwise

beginning at the bottom of the staircase, waves of dense cells shift into rings, then spirals, and finally into large scale radial cells. in order to produce formations reminiscent of plant tissue cross-sections, nervous system has used their ‘corollaria’ software which uses an optimization process of anisotropic centroidal voronoi diagrams. as a result, the cells optimize their distribution in response to a morphic background metric.

the railing is made of 10 gauge steel, which is laser-cut and powder-coated in matte black. the design was broken down into 6 panels, one of which is bent to create the corner. the laser cutting was completed by hatfield metal fabrication in poughkeepsie, new york. 

the railing design was inspired by the microscopic morphologies of plant tissues
image by jessica rosenkrantz

design sketches showing the development of the corollaria railing

project info:

name: corollaria railing
design studio: nervous system
design team: jessica rosenkrantz, jesse louis-rosenberg

designboom has received this project from our ‘DIY submissions‘ feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here.

edited by: myrto katsikopoulou | designboom