Description

All rooms are organized on a single raised level that is nearly square in plan and supported by only four pillars. Floor and ceiling with their ribbed slabs in fair-faced concrete are space-defining elements. To the north and south, the slabs transition into closed walls, perforated only by small, precisely placed openings for light and air. Bands of windows stretch along the entire east and west sides, interrupted only on the west side by the stairs and the house entrance. The garden is enclosed with walls and embankments and so densely planted that one has the sense of being perched above a horizon consisting solely of trees and shrubs, an impression that is enhanced by the screen wall on the cantilevered roof structure, which blocks out the sky like blinders.

The floor plan is organized into areas for living, dining, cooking, and working by subdividing a single large space with a series of inserted chamber-like rooms, which are treated as furnishings rather than parts of the house. The living room is wrapped around the bedroom area in the form of a “U” with the result that the interior space along the facade functions as a long and tranquil communal area, behind which the bedrooms are screened off. However, when the sliding doors are open, these rooms expand into the living area. Bathrooms, WC, and walk-in closets are arranged like a filter to the bedrooms in the direction of the east facade, where the living and dining areas extend through the entire breadth of the house. The bedrooms can also be opened toward this side. The floor plan can therefore be utilized and interpreted in multiple ways; it is brought to life entirely as a result of the sensual materiality, the diffuse light penetrating into the interior, and the view onto the verdant exterior.

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