Description

Building row with front gallery behind noise protection wall of large glass panels. The gallery also provides a link to the housing units at the end of the row. Straight-run stairs, parallel to the facade, provide access to the floors; the apartments can be reached by walkways and are thus separated from events on the gallery. The entrance doors, turned slightly inward, allow for visual contact into the access area through the kitchen windows situated at the corner.

The organization of the apartment is essentially the same despite varying apartment sizes: located along a slanted hallway is first the kitchen, then the wedge-shaped living area. In the hallway, a diagonally inserted yellow cube (storage room) separates the living and sleeping areas and directs circulation toward the living room. A second door behind the cube provides a direct short connection between living and sleeping areas (second path). Upon entering the apartment, a visitor can see through it all the way to the loggia; floor-to-ceiling sliding windows admit light and open the room up to the outside.

On the second floor the apartments are organized around inserted interior courtyards. These interior courtyards and the rooftop terraces on the third floor are marked on the courtyard side as recesses in the built volume. The crosswall/lightweight structure enables changes after the fact: only one column, one wall, and the installation shaft are fixed inside an apartment.

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Originally published in: Oliver Heckmann, Friederike Schneider (eds.), Floor Plan Manual Housing, fourth revised and expanded edition, Birkhäuser, 2011.