Description

Access:

Entrance hall connects the street side with the courtyard side: vertical point access, one unit per floor; inside stairwell; area around the elevator provides direct access to the apartments; stairwell lit by skylight

Interior space:

With the exception of the ground floor, each of the apartments occupies an entire floor. A compact, vertical access core, shifted from the axial center of the ground plan, houses the stairwell, the wet cells, and the freight elevator. Because of this central access, each floor consists of a single, continuous large room, which can be partitioned with flexible elements to suit individual requirements. Full-height windows along the facades, both toward the street and the courtyard, create an open, urban atmosphere with the characteristics of a loft.

Exterior space:

Balconies attached to oriel elements and recessed into the volume, roof terrace, private gardens on the ground floor (front garden), and common area in the courtyard.

Morphology:

The volume aligns seamlessly with the row of buildings, which is slightly recessed from the street, and its solid walls establish a clearly defined zone for the front garden as well as a closed-off courtyard space. The all-glass facades facing the street and the courtyard have parapet walls of green glass that articulates the floors horizontally. Bay-window-like projections enable residents to step into the space above the street and also create a volume with distant panorama-like views.

 

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Originally published in: Peter Ebner, Eva Herrmann, Roman Höllbacher, Markus Kuntscher, Ulrike Wietzorrek, Typology +: Innovative Residential Architecture, Birkhäuser, 2009.