Description

Urban context

A neighborhood of the row houses typical of Philadelphia’s extended cityscape, a
street facade was filled in by inserting nine apartment units.

Ground-floor zone

The ground floor is sunken a half floor, so that no front doors are located on
the street level. Placing a second facade about a meter in front of the
apartments creates a transition zone that is neither outside nor inside. Stairs
in this interim zone lead to the entrances of the units above and below. The
paving of the sidewalk harmonizes it with the architecture, and the fixed
planting box functions as a private marker in the public space.

Building structure

The twenty-meter-deep volumes contain two rows of houses, one above the other.
The interior floor plan is organized in three layers. The serving rooms
(kitchen, sanitary area, and stairs) extend out from the center. The living and
sleeping areas extend the full width of the unity and are located to the north
and south on the facades. The upper units have a roof terrace; the lower ones, a
private garden, which is accessible from both the upper and lower level by the
attached open stairs.

Facade

Row houses may be as popular as they are because they precisely stake off their
private area from that of others. This project calls into question such drawing
of boundaries between neighbors. The theme of the narrow facade is emphasized,
and a new vertical rhythm results, uniting the apartments into a community
rather than separating them from one another. The facades on both the street
side and the courtyard side are designed as autonomous zones. Windows that open
outward, small balconies, loggias, and exterior stairs produce ever new
variations on the theme of the boundary between inside and outside and between
private and collective space.

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Originally published in: Ulrike Wietzorrek, Housing+: On Thresholds, Transitions, and Transparencies, Birkhäuser, 2014.