Description

The single-story housing units, each arranged around four patios and a back garden, are divided into two blocks. The volumes of each unit are linked using homogenous materials, repetitive elements, and an all-enclosing perimeter wall, so that a patchwork emerges in which it is difficult to identify the single units. The common feature of the floor plans is the central section where the entrance, kitchen, corridors, and bathroom are situated, and from where three differently sized spatial volumes branch off to the sides. Due to the spatial organization, these appendices – a large living room as an extension of the entrance patio and the two perpendicular bedrooms in the private part of the house – always have outer walls and courtyards on two sides, thereby facilitating cross-ventilation for each room individually. The shady patios are a reminder of more traditional living forms where family life plays out in a space visually separate from the outside world and passersby.

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Originally published in: Oliver Heckmann, Friederike Schneider with Eric Zapel (eds.), Floor Plan Manual Housing, fifth revised and expanded edition, Birkhäuser, 2018.