Hacker News Reader

Comment by crazygringo | Hacker News Reader

What about evidence for a simpler theory, such as they were built in the direction that made most sense from where the doors would wind up?

Like if you go through the bottom/top door, it's more natural to walk straight forwards and then curve, rather than walk in, turn 90°, and then walk upwards.

Obviously this wouldn't matter if the door were located facing precisely the middle of the spiral, but it certainly does if it more naturally opens on one side of the spiral.

View on HN

Doors can be built to open in four ways: inwards or outwards, hinge on the left or right. (Sorry if the language is wrong, non-native speaker here.) Considering that I am not sure I can follow why the door would make one direction more natural than the other. Maybe because there were more right-handed people than left-handed which made one setup more natural than the other?

> hinge on the left or right.

Not "left" or "right", which is different on roomside and stairside, but inside or outside of the spiral.

Wouldn't the doors likely be on the wall of the spiral. A door in the spiral stairs seems very awkward.

Left and right are usually (at least here in Germany) defined relative to “standing on the side the door will open towards and facing the door”.

Often the room itself gives you reason to prefer one direction or another. If the door is in a corner you want the open door to be against the wall (unless you don't - I can't think of why, but...). If there are other doors on the same wall you need to consider them - sometimes hinges all the same for symmetry; sometimes opposite so the the doors don't bang into each other (when they are right next to each other.

> If the door is in a corner you want the open door to be against the wall (unless you don't - I can't think of why, but...).

There could be a window there but not in the alternative location.

Sorry, I don't mean the direction of the door but the position of the door itself in the wall.

I can't draw anything here, but imagine the staircase is the width of two doors. So the door could be on either side (closer to either edge).

If the door is on the left, you want the staircase to curve upwards to the right. And vice-versa.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com