Description

Urban context

This housing complex organized around a two-part inner courtyard replaced in part
the existing building of the Evangelischer Frauenbund (Protestant women’s
league), which since the late nineteenth century has made available on this site
apartments and places of work for disadvantaged women and operated a children’s
home here. The courtyard complex is linked to the neighbor building by green
interstices. The block structure is approached by a public street only from the
south. With a large spectrum of living spaces for different age groups,
families, single parents, young people, and the physically and mentally
handicapped, the Brahmshof is a model of residential architecture for a
community. The diverse offerings for communal facilities include rooms for
crafts, seminars, parties, and management, a gymnastics room and a prayer room,
and a public café, a children’s home, and several day-care centers.

Ground-floor zone

The focus of the complex is the large courtyard inside the block, whose stand of
old trees could be preserved. Several centrally placed studio buildings divide
the courtyard space into two areas. Spacious gravel and meadow areas form a
communal center that inspires diverse activities. The court is surrounded by a
four-story shelf structure at a distance from the building, consisting of
stairs, footbridges, and galleries to the apartments. The load-bearing structure
of rhythmically placed supports creates a buffer between the public uses and the
ground floor, which is predominately occupied by common facilities. Open
stairways and elevator towers at the intersections of paths and corridors lead
from the courtyard to the upper stories. The building has planted garden areas
outside in front.

Building structure

Seventy units in a wide variety of sizes together with numerous community service
facilities form the architectural foundation for community living that
integrated the existing L-shaped buildings. The apartments range from small
one-and-a-half-room apartments to spacious two-story maisonettes of the
“house-within-a-house” type. All units extend the full depth of the building.
The path system of galleries expands and constricts to form a variety of
threshold areas between private and common space. Recessed entries create
private areas in front of the units. The kitchen and dining areas, by contrast,
are designed as a semipublic zone facing the gallery and have large windows.

Facade

The bright and friendly facades obtain a rhythm from the steel frame of balconies
and galleries that hangs in front of the volume, thus producing a homey scale. A
diverse system of vertical green spaces – a mix of front yards, terraces, and
balconies – can be appropriated and designed individually by the residents. The
steel structure serves as a trellis for vines. Spacious passageways transition
from the street space to the publicly accessible courtyard space. The Brahmshof
is distinguished by a lively climate for living.

---

Originally published in: Ulrike Wietzorrek, Housing+: On Thresholds, Transitions, and Transparencies, Birkhäuser, 2014.