Description

Berlin is in urgent need of affordable housing. In 2016, the municipal housing cooperative HOWOGE launched an idea competition for a prototypical residential high-rise. The prize-winning design by LIN Architekten proposes a combination of prefabricated elements, flexible apartment layouts and two-storey communal areas: a high-rise housing typology for Berlin on a modular basis.

Alongside the structural elements, the extensible framework comprises the perimeter balconies and a rigid concrete core. The internal arrangement extends from the core in rings: first the corridor around the core, providing access to between 6 and 10 apartments per floor, then the wet rooms of the apartments, and finally the living areas ranging in size from 1-room, 26 m² units to 4-room, 99 m² apartments. Nine different floor plan types have been developed with living areas oriented predominantly east or west. To ensure maximum spaciousness and flexibility, corridors have been avoided wherever possible and rooms serve multiple functions, e.g. as living-dining-kitchen spaces. Because the vertical ducts lie deep within the building and the balconies around the perimeter are independent of the floor plan, the space in-between can be joined or divided both horizontally and vertically to create apartments of different sizes and configurations. As with the traditional Berlin block, the plans can also incorporate office and work spaces.

The modular construction is independent of the floor slabs, making it possible to omit ceiling panels to create two-storey spaces of up to 6 m in height. Communal spaces for the residents as well as co-working spaces, shops or a café can also be incorporated. As such, the typology is adaptable to different urban contexts and the respective needs of its users.

Originally published in Bauwelt 19.2017, pp. 36-37, abridged and edited for Building Types online, translated by Julian Reisenberger

---