I spend a lot of time in an apartment on the third floor of a building. To reach it, you have to climb 96 stairs. When I am not there, I take opportunities where I can to stay in practice with climbing stairs. Thus, today, staying in a modern chain hotel, I climbed to our fifth floor room. To get there I walked up 70 stairs. So to reach the fifth floor, I climbed almost 30 fewer stairs than I would to reach my usual third floor flat.
At some point somewhere someone in an office decided to save money by lowering ceiling heights in new-builds. When I walk into the rooms in that 96-steps-up third floor apartment, they are so generous in their proportions that I feel my spirit has been set free. When I walk into a low-ceilinged modern hotel room, I feel I am entering a box, a space that provides not a centimetre more space than is absolutely necessary. It may save money for builders but I wonder what the mental effect is on those who live in apartment buildings constructed on similar lines.
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