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A French designer cut and pieced together 429 wooden slats to create this magnificent staircase in Paris.
Ora Ïto designed the staircase, which ascends four stories, for the media division of LVMH, the parent company of luxury brands including Louis Vuitton and Dior.
With curved edges that detail sides of the slats, LED-lit stair treads, and French oak veneer, the staircase is truly a work of art.
"I wanted the staircase to be the centerpiece of the building," said Ïto. "This creature undulates in the space, shaping and pervading it. This huge half-whale and half-snake chimera snatches you, swallows you up and spits you out at the right floor."
The slats are engineered to be as lightweight as possible - made of two layers of MDF and a hidden steel beam covered in French oak veneer.
Ïto also designed other parts of the building as part of the project, using the wooden slats to build walls in a first-floor auditorium.
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