Description

Access:

V House is generously elevated above ground level, providing parking places underneath; V House has external access gallery and interior stairwell; stairwells lit by openings to the access gallery; M House has interior corridor system and interior stairwells; stairwells lit by windows.

Interior:

The structure of the building generates a wide variety of apartments of different sizes and layouts, most of which are conceived as maisonettes and receive natural light from two sides. Every apartment has a two-story living area and has views through full-height panorama windows into the surroundings, which is improved by the diagonally arrangement of the sharp bend in the building volume. In principle, the living areas are constructed as lofts and flow into the individual areas of the maisonette levels; the kitchens are open and integrated into the living space. The bathrooms and toilets do not receive natural light or ventilation as they are located in the center of the building.

Exterior:

V House has balconies with a triangular floor plan adjacent to the living room; M House has loggias adjacent to the living room and kitchen.

Morphology:

This ensemble of two glass slab residential buildings extends spatially between the railroad line and the canal, and several sharp bends add tension to its volume. The two residential rows have a similar materiality in that they combine glass and silvery metal, but they differ in form: Whereas V House is a lively elevated volume with an angular roof and balcony levels that jut out expressively, M House soothes the plazalike space between the buildings by closing off the ground floor and integrating its outdoor spaces into the volume as loggias.

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