Description

This plot for a subtly refined family home is in a village-like, densely populated area on Berlin’s northern boundary. It sits about four metres above street level at the highest point of a little slope, evoking an air of distinguished modesty behind the existing buildings. The choice of formal language, a classical gable-roof house, is not surprising given this genius loci, but it is interpreted in a surprising way. Its mild, harmless roof incline of only 25 degrees and two flat-roofed sections offset diagonally on the long sides demand closer attention. Here an essentially random motif, particularly in a suburban milieu, of a main building with a lower one beside it, is promoted to architectural theme status. This is a new and unusual variation on the familiar block with a double-bevelled upper section, which has appeared in many banal versions. Both the flat sections fuse with the main building on one plane at the gable sides, thus creating ‘one-ness’ from ‘two-ness’ with an innovative outline. The main façade on the street side acquires an over-large aperture that ties the two parts together visually, making it unmistakably clear that ‘flat’ and ‘diagonal’ belong together, are one. A glance at the ground plan makes this clearer still: the flat ‘kitchen’section runs into the living section, making one space with it. Now the visitor is doubly surprised, as the actual living room is more like a hall, rising–on two floors in the front section–to the ridge point.

The architects play with contradictions: duality and yet unity in the body of the building, a powerful two-storey quality and yet one space. The ground plan disposition continues this, as the ground floor consists of two offset squares, thus blurring the long central main section. This forms a ‘living house’ at the front and a ‘sleeping house’ at the back, both linked and divided by the stairs.

The architects’ terse formal language is reminiscent of the Bauhaus Modernism found in Berlin and not-so-distant Dessau. The sharp-edged precision of white cubature with black window frames is enriched with sensually red areas picking out the entrance, courtyard and bedroom bay windows. Carefully placed and proportioned apertures strive to illustrate the geometrical order. The architects achieved a design that is well integrated with the location, and created a house that breathes magnanimity, despite a very low budget.

---

Originally published in: Klaus-Peter Gast, Living Plans: New Concepts for Advanced Housing, Birkhäuser, 2005.