Description

The goal of this urban planning concept – leaving sufficient space on one side of a historic city wall and formulating a spatial border to a 1950s development on the other side – yielded a simple, albeit very deep volume (21 m building depth). The floor plan layout responds to this building depth by featuring narrow enclosed and open atria inserted in the volume, and loggias along the west facade, which are open on two sides.

The open living area forms an L-shape around these open spaces: the inserted block with kitchen counters and built-in closet reprises the shape and defines areas for access, cooking, dining, and living. The bedrooms and bathrooms – again in an L-plan – adjoin this area. The arrangement of living area, atrium, and loggia allows for complex sightlines through different spatial layers, both horizontal and vertical, resulting in a stimulating ambiguity in the perception of the spaces, be they interior or exterior, accessible or nonaccessible. In each second segment, the access cores occupy the space of a bedroom and bathroom: thus, although the apartments appear identical from the outside, they are of different sizes on the inside and are accessed from different sides.

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