RCA graduates design spiral staircase that can be strapped to a tree

Londoners who thought their days of climbing trees were behind them can think again.

Two design graduates have designed CanopyStair, a light spiral staircase that can be strapped to a trunk to help visitors climb up without damaging the tree at all.

Dutch designer Thor ter Kulve, 25, and Londoner Rob McIntyre, 29, created the staircase as their graduation project at the Royal College of Art where two versions can be seen - one in the college courtyard and another outside the Royal Albert Hall next door.

The idea was sparked by was the challenge of seeing over a large wall that blocked the sea view of a house when they were on holiday last year - with further inspiration from the aeronautical engineering involved in an aeroplane’s wing. McIntyre’s grandfather was a chief engineer on the wartime De Havilland wooden “Mosquito” aeroplane.

McIntyre said they hoped it would have a commercial future, adding: “Imagine climbing a tree but not worrying about how you are going to get down. It feels very safe.”

The project can be seen in Show RCA 2015 at the Kensington Gore site, until July 5 alongside Water Bed, a self-contained boat designed by Daniel Durnin which allows a user to “camp” on water. Work at the Battersea site includes the reconstruction of a pub which existed in Lambeth between 1784 and 1870.