Description
The inspiration for this cooperative building venture was the idea to connect the ideals of a single-family home with the advantages of living in a dense, urban context. Thus, the spatial organization of the individual building types and the complex as a whole provides numerous neighborly junctures, while also ensuring the ability to retreat into more private areas. The “townhouses” facing the street (a) are organized as split-level units and open up to their surroundings at multiple points: the entrance and optional commercial spaces are connected to the street, the raised eat-in kitchen is directly linked to the courtyard, while the dual-level roof terraces provide views into the surrounding neighborhood. The firewall building consists of a row of residential units stacked on top of each other. These so-called garden houses (b) are accessed directly from the courtyard, where their eat-in kitchen is also located. Situated on the more secluded floor above is the living room. The penthouses (c) above these units are accessed mid-level through a corridor to the rear. The living room is located on the top floor and has access to a private roof terrace above the fray.
Communal activities foster the feeling of a neighborhood: the garden has not been parceled out, thus offering spaces to meet and play, and a shared roof terrace with an outdoor kitchen can be used by residents in the warmer months. There are also a sauna and guest apartments.
The configurations of the block edge and the firewall building can be read as a reaction to the disadvantages of the lot, which faces north and is surrounded by the high walls of the neighboring properties. For this reason, the townhouses on the street are only 4 stories high to allow enough light to reach the garden houses. The 3-story garden houses along the firewall are built on top of the underground garage and therefore raised an entire level. Stacked above, the penthouses are exposed to natural light from the courtyard as well through a patio to the rear.
Drawings
Floor plan diagrams, scale 1:500
Site plan
Garden level, entire ensemble (2nd floor), scale 1:750
3rd floor, entire ensemble, scale 1:750
Townhouse floor plans (Type A): Ground floor with street access and parking garage to the rear, upper split levels offset between street and courtyard facades, scale 1:200
Garden house floor plans (Type B): 2nd floor with courtyard access, upper split-levels offset to the left and right, scale 1:200
Penthouse floor plans (Type C): 5th floor, 6th floor with access corridor, 7th floor with stairs to upper roof terrace, scale 1:200
Cross section through the split-level floors of the garden house, scale 1:500
Cross section through the raised living room of the garden house, scale 1:500
Photos
View of interior courtyard
View from firewall building over the row house roof terraces
Originally published in: Oliver Heckmann, Friederike Schneider with Eric Zapel (eds.), Floor Plan Manual Housing, fifth revised and expanded edition, Birkhäuser, 2018.