Description
The project was realized by a housing cooperative with the future residents assuming the role of client. This allowed them to influence the building costs, implement individual floor plan preferences, and form a cooperative community of residents even prior to completion. The group chose a construction method that is amenable to flexible floor plan design while also being ecologically and economically sustainable: a seven-story post-and-beam wood construction with reinforcing solid wood walls and composite wood-concrete ceilings that freely span the space with a central girder that is flush with the ceiling; the only elements in the interior space of the room are two installation shafts. Completely different floor plans with open living areas were developed in consultation with the users.
While some of the living areas are fully open from front to rear and others are oriented towards the courtyard or the access, all are wrapped around the individual rooms located at the corners or the courtyard i.e. street elevation. The access core is separate for reasons of fire protection: since the apartment building is a wood construction, the escape route had to be built in reinforced concrete and set apart from the building. The resulting gap creates a “third facade”.
Transferring the stairwell to the outside also helps to facilitate flexibility in the interior and shifts access to each apartment, via 3-m-long footbridges, into the urban space. On three floors, the access route leads across a generously proportioned incised open space, further enhancing the feeling of owning an entire level and hence a home of one’s own in the city.
Drawings
Photos
Street façade
External staircase
Originally published in: Oliver Heckmann, Friederike Schneider (eds.), Floor Plan Manual Housing, fourth revised and expanded edition, Birkhäuser, 2011.