Description

Access:

Central entrance hall in the semibasement connects the two stairwells and the exterior areas; vertical point access, two units per floor; stairwells lit by windows.

Interior:

Each of the large 2- to 7-room apartments is oriented toward three or four sides. One unusual feature is a hall leading toward the interior courtyard, through which most of the apartments are entered. As a passageway, this hall serves both the dining room and children’s play area. The living room, of similar size, always receives light from three sides and is directly connected to the terrace bridge via a sliding door. The kitchen spaces are situation as angled spaces between the hall and the living room.

Exterior:

Balconies/terraces; roof terraces; terrace bridges widen to serve as outdoor living rooms.

Morphology:

In order to maximize use of the large building depth, the apartments meander around three light wells that are closed off from the outside by spacious transparent terrace bridges. The dark gray of the exterior plaster makes the building seem smaller; the silver paint of the clefts in the courtyard and the reflective glass parapets reflect daylight deep into the building volume.

---

Originally published in: Peter Ebner, Eva Herrmann, Roman Höllbacher, Markus Kuntscher, Ulrike Wietzorrek, Typology +: Innovative Residential Architecture, Birkhäuser, 2009.