Description
Entrance halls connect sides of the building located at different heights; vertical point access, three units per floor; spatially complex interior stairwell with staggered entrance platforms for the apartments and two-story air spaces; stairwells lit by windows.
The apartments were developed based on a two-story module composed of six units—a so-called “six-pack.” Four flats and two maisonette apartments compose the two-story module, with access provided by a single stairwell. The maisonette apartments have an opulent living space on the entrance level, while the more private rooms are on the level above or below. The flats are grouped around an open-plan living space that extends through the entire depth of the building. This structure generates a diversity of apartment types and establishes a balance between a series of repeating basic types and a large variety of apartments with special layouts.
Projecting and slightly inserted balconies in a staggered arrangement that extend the living room of the flats outward across its entire width; stepped terraces on the short ends; communal outdoor spaces around the building.
The complex is characterized by robustness of expression and materials, which makes it possible to get away without elaborate personalization. The outward form of the neutral shell of slate panels, with a consistent, calm rhythm of horizontal window openings with shallow reveals produces a balance of homogeneity and individuality. The balconies express diversity, but they nevertheless conform to a netlike grid that runs across the floors of the volume. Diagonal lines as articulating elements define the building on the level of varied scales; they can be found not only in the floor plans and in the structure of the facades but also in the arrangement of the slate panels.
Drawings
Site plan, scale 1:2000
Apartment access diagram
Ground floor, scale 1:500
Second floor, scale 1:500
Third floor, scale 1:500
Fourth floor, scale 1:500
Sample Apartment, scale 1:200
Apartment types, scale 1:200
Longitudinal section, scale 1:500
Photos
Exterior view
Interior view of duplex apartment
Originally published in: Peter Ebner, Eva Herrmann, Roman Höllbacher, Markus Kuntscher, Ulrike Wietzorrek, Typology +: Innovative Residential Architecture, Birkhäuser, 2009.