Return Stair – St Peter’s Seminary – Cardross (Scotland)

When I was in practice as an architect, I always enjoyed the drawing aspect, and in particular the geometries with which one was often confronted. There was always something satisfying about those basic geometries, of square and circle – and there was always something satisfying about drawing stairs.
So, this is a special moment – not because there’s anything special about this stair, but because it is from one of the most magnificent Modern buildings of the 20th Century. The architects who designed it – Andy MacMillan and Isi Metzstein – had heritage in the minimalism of the original Modern movement, and I have no doubt they delighted in the pure geometries of this stair, as much as they might delight in any other aspect of this incredible building.