Impossible objects #16: Piano stairs

I like this one. How could you encourage people to use the stairs, in a public building, rather than take the escalator?

Piano stairs may be the answer. Check out this video of the amended subway exit at Odenplan station in Stockholm.

Each step is a piano key, and people make their own sweet pedestrian music. A cacophony at rush hour, though.

A lot of fun, nontheless, even if it was built to be a Volkswagen viral video…

Previous Impossible Objects we’ve covered:

• the clock that draws the time
• the pocket light folding bulb
• the shattering door
• the wooden mirror
• the inside-out salt shaker

• the Wingdings keyboard
• the door lock maze

• the dark lamp

• the global chess board

• the curved keyboard

• the implausible plug
• the infinite tap
• the simplified calculator
• the electric hammer
• the signature coffee pot

2 Comments

1. 
   Peter G.
   March 19, 2010

   Sounds like a great idea, until some drunk fellow tries to play “Garryowen” and breaks his neck.

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2. 
   Alun Williams - Electronics Weekly.com
   March 19, 2010

   True, Peter, but introducing drunkenness seldon improves anything!
   BTW, what or who was “Gary Owen”? I know him as a midfielder for Man City in the 1970s, but the rugby commentators are always talking about a full-back kicking and chasing a “Gary Owen”… The same or another??

   reply