Description
One goal of the 7-story “housing shelf,” which was realized as part of an international building expo in the 1980s, was to stem the exodus toward home ownership on the periphery and the resulting urban sprawl, and to encourage residents to remain in their urban quarter. Collaborative planning, building, and living were part of the program for the cooperative.
The primary structure of the house consists of a framework of prefabricated reinforced concrete components: when the shell was completed, it had the appearance of a shelf with (open) compartments – hence the nickname. The future residents then “inserted” the 2-story apartments into this framework. Realized in wooden skeleton construction and built in part by the residents themselves, the idea originated in the concept of creating stacked row-houses right in the city.
The individual floor plans were determined by the users themselves in consultation with the architect. While the room divisions are entirely different in the twelve units, the floor plan concepts remain conventional: either with a front-to-back open living room or with a kitchen separated from the living room and bedrooms on the upper level. In some units, the bathtub is accessible from two sides. All units have the benefit of generous winter gardens or loggias and small balconies as well. The planted roof patio is for shared use by all residents. Any decisions with regard to modifications to the building are made jointly by the cooperative.
Drawings
Photos
Street façade
Originally published in: Oliver Heckmann, Friederike Schneider (eds.), Floor Plan Manual Housing, fourth revised and expanded edition, Birkhäuser, 2011.