Description

Compact double row as an autonomous urban module: open spaces and rooftop terraces are cut into the built volume from outside. Inside is a residential street that runs along the longitudinal axis of the building, closed to the outside by gates and offering a starting point for the stairwells. On the upper stories, bridges link the two blocks, thus creating lightwells.

A mixture of apartments: the small apartments with open spaces cut into the building volume are located on the ground floor. The upper floors contain larger apartments, which extend from one side to the other. Work area, dining area, kitchen, and bath are located on the lightwells, with living and sleeping to the outside.

The apartments on the third floor have two-story high living rooms with access via spiral staircases to large rooftop terraces. On the fourth floor, the living room stretches from the stairwell core across the bridge all the way to the exterior wall. It integrates the entrance area, kitchen, and dining area and opens toward the sleeping zone on the one side, and toward the building corner with recessed terraces on the other. Communal secondary and storage rooms between the apartments are located on the ground floor.

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