ArchiFactory . Photos: © Gernot Maul
In a Southern suburb of Dortmund, a `40s single-family house with pitched roof is to be expanded by adding a supplementary apartment. This extension, situated along the street, looks like a sculptural molded wood block, like a prototype.
The design depicts the house as both an object and residential building. Solid wood planks are to be used for the outer walls to form a continuous unit. Roof eaves, drains, chimney or canopy have been abandoned. The windows and doors are set flush with the outside wall and positioned according to the requirements of the inside. The house looks like a minimalist volume, compact and heavy, from which the interior has been peeled out and covered on the outside with surfaces of various materials that in their form and arrangement inspire a acomparative observation.
Whoever wants to enter the house first has to walk into a subterranean entrance hall adjacent to the garage. Ist ambivalent perspective is due to its trapezoid plan as well as to its elevation. The opposite stairs direct the look to the living room vitrifaction that offers the view into the inner courtyard. Those who are entering the house at first are visually acquainted with its centre.
In accordance to the request to maximum usability of the ground space, a typological hybrid was designed between split-levels and standard floors. The ground and the gallery floor form a flowing unit with separate zones for living, dining, kitchening and working, all connected to the living-area that is over two floors high. The continuous dark terrazzo floor and an open staircase, fitted in like a sculpture, also stress this unit. The orientation towards the garden has changed in the uppermost floor. Here is a roof terrace, encircled on all three sides from wooden walls, a completely cut off refuge, that centred the privacy of the house and enables a dialog with the sky.
In the interaction of lightness and gravity, the measure and the appearance separate the house from the neighbouring houses. This is what its specific object quality is based upon.
