Description
Kaufmann’s Innauer House falls into the category of homes built in recent years that try to reinterpret the archaic ‘house’ as block with gable roof. The intention is not ‘form’ as decoration or an expressive quality for an envelope, but a new simplicity, in terms of cutting down to the terse lines of this classical figure in combination with innovative material qualities. A striking feature here is the homogenization of the outer shell, with wall and roof flowing into each other, usually as the same construction with the same surface. Here exposed concrete was chosen, defining all the internal areas and also the stairs. Outside, it is insulated and acquires an additional covering of chromium-plated sheeting. Kaufmann‘s consistent and thus especially impressive reduction of materials matches the form and the apertures in its abstraction: there are few apertures on the street side, and large areas of glass wall on the courtyard side, reduced to absolutely essential framing profiles.
The building was constructed over an existing wine cellar. Access on the ground floor is via a covered parking area or the street. There is a kind of staged progress via a shallowly inclined staircase to the kitchen and dining area, which are also dominated by concrete and sheet metal. The top floor accommodates the living room and office, and above this are the bedroom area and dressing room, with the air space of the two-storey living area adjacent. Simple distribution of functions and simple form cannot hide the fact that the architect tried very carefully to develop a highly elegant overall appearance that is also intended to be formal sculpture, despite the archetypal approach taken: the rectangular block is cut into on two sides, thus changing to a polygonal shape and acquiring a discreetly dramatic quality.
Drawings
Originally published in: Klaus-Peter Gast, Living Plans: New Concepts for Advanced Housing, Birkhäuser, 2005.