Two stairways are required in Los Angeles apartments. What does that have to do with the housing crisis?
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-08-29/could-apartments-with-only-one-stairway-be-a-solution-to-l-a-s-housing-crisisOpen linkView original on lemmy.world
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https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=eXWhbUUE4ko
There's a couple of great informative videos by About Here regarding building codes and single vs double stair case buildings:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=011TOfugais
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozwkP9Zsi0Y
They're more about Canadian building codes but it applies to this thread too. Each video is about 11mins long. Very informative.
This is part of a major rethinking of how code impacts density and whether it is worth it for certain design forms.
There is a cost to safety and it is used to evaluate whether it is worth it given the odds.
The odds that you die because your six story building only has one staircase may be low. The odds that someone dies because six story buildings only require one staircase is 100%.
And if the cost of all the stairwells is $100,000,000, is that life worth it?