Description

Six maisonette apartments, front-to-back across all three levels, feature two-story open spaces on both sides and terminate in a floor entirely reserved for individual rooms on the third level. However, what sets this building apart is the transformation of the standard layout of comparable maisonettes: on the mezzanine level, the interior is liberated from the corset of the two dividing walls and is pushed into the adjacent apartment. On the one hand, this has the effect that the open living space is organized into three areas – soaring across two stories height at the two facades and low in the middle, where kitchen and WC are located.

On the other hand, this solution creates a unique space on the mezzanine between the open living area below and the closed, predetermined individual rooms above, with sightlines in all directions and suitable for a variety of flexible uses. The cave-like penetration into the adjacent unit creates a complex floor plan that defines the entire volume.Two apartments are combined into a unit, in which the inserted rooms are oriented in opposite directions on one or the other side of the building.

In this manner, the living areas too change in orientation with the inserted open patio on one side. The two penthouse apartments occupy the entire length of the building and are entwined in a meandering manner. Each unit is oriented toward two sides and surrounds one, i.e. two patios. The penthouse units are accessed from a shared roof patio, while a second entrance from the fire escape allows for divisions across the middle of the plan.

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