Description

Two squares form a walled frame for four apartment blocks that communicate with each other in an unusual way. Two units are linked in pairs in the centre of each of the two sites, creating a formal and minimal building ensemble. The parallel blocks split the plots up in such a way that a half belongs to each block. The very simplicity of the concept is convincing: each building acquires a completely protected garden court that the neighbours cannot look into, as the concentrated large apertures on the ground floor face in opposite directions. The upper storey windows also face the dwelling’s own plot only.

The framing and enclosing wall creates a patio effect: it is not possible to look in from the outside either. Hence the garden court enables the ground floor living area to be glazed to its full height, and thus extend to the end of the plot. The space is allocated in the simplest possible, and also the most reasonably priced, way: only the stairs and a small ancillary zone separate the living area from the kitchen. Three bedrooms and a bathroom are placed on the top floor. As principal access, garden, terrace and also roofed parking area, the patio mediates between outside and inside, and turns out to be a pleasingly dimensioned outside space.

The prismatic building sections seem to form an integrated whole, flowing together with the walls and creating a homogeneous overall figure through the dark brick of the outer skin. Building and garden, and thus interior and exterior, present themselves as elements in a successful overall relationship.

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