DGJ Architektur . photos: © Thilo Ross Urh. No. 4026999, Source: DGJ Architektur GmbH.
“Gemeinsam Suffizient Leben” is a place where people can meet and live together in a social, family- friendly and intergenerational way. Individual development opportunities and the promotion of communal living complement each other. The building is a model project for future-proof, sustainable construction, which was developed in a participatory planning process with the client and residents. It realises a flexible form of living in an innovative timber construction.
In 2018, the concept was awarded the “Hessian Prize for Innovation and Public Spirit in Housing Construction”.
The property is located in Frankfurt’s popular Nordend district, opposite the “Hessendenkmal” and in the immediate vicinity of Bethmannpark with the “Garden of Heavenly Peace”. This Wilhelminian-style neighbourhood is one of the most densely populated in Frankfurt. It is attractive because of its good transport links and proximity to the city centre. Nevertheless, the plot of only around 313 square metres with a narrow layout was unattractive for conventional building. The challenge was to plan rooms with different functions in a very compact space. DGJ Architektur rose to this challenge with an innovative living concept. The colourful, diverse life of the district is reflected in the façade.
The colour concept sensitively incorporates the colours of the surroundings. The address-forming façade acts as an eye-catcher along the monotonously coloured row of houses on Friedberger Landstrasse: cheerful and lively, with warm colour temperatures. At the same time, it symbolises the special living concept and the attitude of the residents: Open and tolerant, committed to the residential community and the neighbourhood. Residents are members of the Wohnbaugenossenschaft in Frankfurt am Main eG housing association and have a say when a flat becomes available. The selection of residents is intended to enable people of different ages, genders, marital status and social circumstances to live together in diversity.
The building follows the eponymous “principle of sufficiency”: The individual living space is deliberately reduced to encourage more intensive use of the communal areas. This eliminates unnecessary space reserves in the individual flats. The house community uses a kitchen-cum-living room, communal balconies on each floor and a guest/joker room. The central communal areas are directly assigned to the entrance and connected to the stairwell. This makes them part of everyday life as a meeting place. The per capita requirement is 27.8 m2 compared to the current national average of 47.4 m2.
Generous window openings, built-in furniture, sufficient storage space in the basement and reduced circulation areas ensure a high quality of life in the flats. The debate about affordable housing and sustainable construction has focussed on efficiency. Although more efficient construction methods and ways of operating housing lead to savings, these are eaten up by the increasing demand for living space per person. Growth and living standards must be decoupled from resource consumption and qualitative growth replaced by numerical growth. Smaller, high-quality flats require particularly careful planning. This also reduces the consumption of resources and materials in the production of the building.
Buildings that fulfil the wishes and requirements of the residents in the long term, can react flexibly to changing living conditions and can be adapted, have a high identification potential and are valued and cared for over generations. In a participatory process between the client, residents and planners, a building was developed that remains useful over its entire life cycle and represents a sustainable investment.
DGJ Architektur developed an innovative residential concept in sustainable timber construction for the “Gemeinsam Suffizient Wohnen” project. The primary structure of the building is a timber frame construction using only timber-timber nodes without metal connections. As an environmentally friendly, CO2-binding and renewable raw material, wood makes the building largely recyclable by type if necessary, in line with the “cradle-to-cradle” approach. The room-dividing elements are non- load-bearing, which allows the floor plans to be adapted without extensive interventions in the structure. The timber frame potentially allows the interior walls to be installed and removed independently. Flats can be converted into small rooms or spacious rooms (e.g. cluster flats) and different floor layouts are possible.
Reducing the amount of space required reduces construction and operating costs as well as land consumption for affordable and needs-based living space. The consumption of resources and materials in the construction of the building and the environmental impact are minimised. The ground floor will be home to a daycare centre, which is aimed at the entire neighbourhood, and a disabled- friendly flat in accordance with the first funding channel / DIN18040 Part 2. The building was also funded by the “Frankfurt programme for family and senior-friendly rental housing”.
Serialised timber construction develops the economies of scale of prefabrication for cost and environmentally friendly production. The integrative planning process involves as many parties as possible at an early stage to save time. Prefabricated or semi-finished elements and prefabricated modules are assembled directly on the construction site with integrated pipework, which saves time and money (wet cells). Digital planning tools, such as building information modelling (BIM), provide the basis for this.
Energy efficiency and climate protection
KfW Programme 153 + Frankfurt Active House standard, highly insulated building envelope, rear- ventilated façade. Air-heat pump, controlled ventilation with heat recovery, underfloor heating. Base for car sharing + e-mobility up to 3 cars. 27 parking spaces for bicycles, charging station for e-bikes. Exclusively wood-wood connections in primary construction. Wood as an environmentally friendly, CO2-binding and renewable raw material according to the “cradle-to-cradle” approach, largely recyclable by type, as is the glass of the façade.
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Living group “Living Together in Sufficiency”
Client: Housing co-operative in Frankfurt am Main eG
Architecture (LP1-LP8): DGJ Architektur GmbH, Frankfurt am Main
Outdoor facilities (LP1-LP8): DGJ Architektur GmbH, Frankfurt am Main
Timber construction: Baumgarten GmbH, Ebersburg/Weyhers
Building physics: bauart Konstruktions GmbH & Co. KG, Lauterbach/Hessen
Statics wood: bauart Konstruktions GmbH & Co. KG, Lauterbach/Hessen
ELT: Engineering office Theuer, Speyer
HLS: Engineering office Theuer, Speyer
PV planner: Mainova AG
Fire protection: bauart Konstruktions GmbH & Co. KG, Lauterbach/Hessen
Sound insulation: bauart Konstruktions GmbH & Co KG, Lauterbach/Hesse
Photographer: Thilo Ross, Heidelberg
Soil surveyor: Dr Hug Geoconsult GmbH, Oberursel
Structural analysis: PKP INGENIEURE PartmbB, Wiesbaden
SiGeKo: Ingenieurbüro Lenz Weber GmbH, Frankfurt am Main
Surveyors: Surveyors Hofmann Köstler, Bruchköbel
Other participants from DGJ Architecture:
Author of the design: Hans Drexler, Univ.-Prof. Dr.- Ing. Dipl. Arch. ETH M. Arch
(Dist.), Managing Partner
Project management: Frederik Ehling, M.A. Arch., Partner
Project architects: Anna Bulavintseva, M.A. Arch; Léa Charpentier, M.A. Arch,
Filipa Almeida, M.A. Arch;
