Description

The complex is one of sixteen blocks, all of which were to adhere to a common rule: to rise to two-and-a-half stories on a nearly square plan; the top level was to be half living area and half roof terrace and garden. The inventive interpretation of these stipulations forms the parameters for this design.

The volume is divided into ten units of 633 m³ each, accessed via a diagonally inserted “minicanyon”. The units are turned inside out; in this manner, corridors, stairs and storage rooms do not take up valuable facade areas, instead the large rooms benefit from all available natural light. The undulating roof, with its extreme height fluctuations between 5 and 15 m, nevertheless achieves the stipulated two-and-a-half stories on average. As a result of the diagonal section, the different widths, and the roof profile, the units have very different cubatures.

Although all have the same spatial volume – units with shallow depth have high rooflines and vice versa – apartment size and number of stories do vary. What is unique, however, is that the interplay of these parameters creates very different room layouts, each of which has special characteristics: tall and narrow i.e. low and deep rooms, roof terraces accessed from a patio on a lower level, there are living rooms that soar towards the light, with galleries along the facade, or patios that are pushed into the double-height space. The roof terraces perforating the undulating green carpet of the roof surface are the defining element – as a fifth elevation visible from all the directions, from the apartments as well as from the city.

---

Originally published in: Oliver Heckmann, Friederike Schneider (eds.), Floor Plan Manual Housing, fourth revised and expanded edition, Birkhäuser, 2011.