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I often hear designers complaining about the interferance of such building regulations (as those for stairs) reducing the quality of their design. When I was a child my parents rented a house in Lagos, Nigeria which had timber open stairs (it was the 1970s). At a childrens party a boy of 2 fell through the treads and landed 2 metres below on his head on the stone floor. I can never forget the blood and the screaming. With the medical attention he received once flown back to the UK, he lived, but with brain damage and was to spend the rest of his life in a wheel chair. Fortunately the stair FULFILLED IT'S POTENTIAL, even if he couldn't. In these litigious days, designing a non building regulation compliant stair would require the backing of a generous PII provider.