Description

The development plan agreed upon after a competition for the specific planning situation of a plot in the town of St. Gallen, proposed parallel terraced housing development; three buildings had already been completed on these lines. Baumschlager & Eberle became involved with the project and introduced a change in the development plan in favour of a similar but yet more open building approach, which particularly enhanced the views of Lake Constance. Eight five-storey blocks stand freely on the green site, each containing 19 dwellings.

The ‘hard centre’ is formed by a central access core with four dwell­ings grouped around it in each case; the façade has an even pattern of French windows. A continuous balcony as a strong horizontal arti­culating structure guarantees shade and also the southern European air of an outdoor living room. An element is now placed in front of the rigorous façade structure that runs counter to its horizontal quality: floor-high sliding glass elements, some mirror glass and some milk glass, form a mobile, semi-transparent layer on the periphery of the building that can be changed by the individual occupants.

This is intended to prevent people from looking into private spaces, and also to reduce noise from semi-public life; at the same time, these residential balconies effectively combine individual living with the communal life. The overall form of the architecture is preserved, without restricting the independent lifestyles of the different occupants. And so the building is transformed from the access core, the ‘hard centre’, out to the soft, variable and yet constant outer skin.

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Originally published in: Klaus-Peter Gast, Living Plans: New Concepts for Advanced Housing, Birkhäuser, 2005.