Description

Construction on a long triangular plot at the waterside. Two narrow linear blocks run lengthways. Lateral buildings between these blocks create interior courtyards, which grow shorter toward the end of the complex and are open to the south. Towards the river the facades are smooth and 5 stories high; towards the residential road they are 3 and 4 stories high. There is an administration building at the base of the triangle. The ground floor contains shops, offices, and community services (kindergarten, crib and crèche). Each of the stairwells in the long rows (with individual elevator) provides access to just two apartments per landing.

On the standard floor the apartment door leads, surprisingly, first to the large loggia, which is simultaneously an entrance and an open space, and serves as a buffer zone. The living space is adjacent. The apartments bend sharply around the interior courtyard, with their main rooms (living room, kitchen, dining area) facing the road, while the bedrooms face the yard. The bend is the central point between the entrance, living room, and private sleeping corridor. The auxiliary rooms lie along the seam where the apartments connect, acting as a service spine serving both sides.

The shape of the plot has endowed the lateral buildings with a variety of length, and thus also the apartments. The longer the building, the more rooms there are along the corridor. In part the apartments interlock at their (wide) ends. As a result there is a whole range of apartment sizes. The longest side building contains four large apartments serving as communal flats.

---

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