Modular Design and Spirals

After taking on the challenge of building my own house, one of the things I quickly learned to appreciate was the importance of modular designs (not sure if that’s an actual term used by the legit building folk but I kinda like the sound of it :) ). What I've discovered is that building in a modular fashion saves money as well as allows for easy expansion :) So how exactly does it save money ??? well by building smaller fully functional units one is able to pay for these units with cash, and at a comfortable pace thus eliminating the need to go to the bank and apply for loans that will suck you dry on interest alone. What I did to implement the principle of modular design is I started off by building a cottage, essentially two bedrooms, single bathroom, open plan kitchen, lounge and dining room. What makes it modular is that I designed the main bedroom in such a way that it can easily be converted into an entertainment room as well as the entrance to a staircase leading up to the second floor above the garage (the garage only appeared last month, yet another module to the grand design :) ) The garage was designed to allow for a second floor by building it on top of very deep reinforced foundations, once money is available the garage roof will be removed and a slab will be installed and an additional 2-3 bedrooms can be built above the garage ... Modular :)

The images below are of my kitchen, lounge and dining area :)

This leads me to the reason for this post ... Another section of my house that will be "plugged in" will be the staircase leading to the rooms above the garage. While searching for staircase designs i came across some really cool spiral staircases ... not that I'll build one, just thought they looked amazing :)

They range from the funcky looking ... such as these colourful spirals which can all be found in Rome

These can be found in the Vatican

And finally (although there are tons more online) ...

On the top left,the spiral staircase at the a castle in Chmielno, Poland. Spiral stairs constructed during medieval times were usually made of stone and tended to wind in a clockwise direction. The three pictures on the right are of the Arc de Triomphe, a monument in Paris. There are 284 spiraling steps to reach the top of the Arc. The middle photo is looking down the round shell, while the bottom photo is looking up. On the bottom left, the spiraling staircase is from a castle in Poland near Kopiec Kosciuszko.