Page 132 - AIT0316_E-Paper

WOHNEN • LIVING INNERE WERTE • INNER VALUES
Blick in den Wohnungsflur • Apartment hallway Blick in das Treppenhaus • View of the staircase struction was reduced all the way to the shell, was partly upgraded and sustainably reno-
Die Büroetage ist funktional, aber hochwertig gestaltet. • The office floor is designed to be functional, of high quality.
Im Untergeschoss entstand ein großzügiger Wellnessbereich. • A wellness zone was added on the lower level.
Grundriss Erdgeschoss • Ground floor plan
132 • AIT 3.2016
T he administration building designed in the 1960 by Josef and Hans-Dieter Traub for
the Haftpflichtverband der Deutschen Industrie is situated halfway up the hillside
and east of the city centre of Stuttgart. The architects positioned the building with its lon-
gitudinal axis vertically to the hillside, thereby making ideal use of the topographic situa-
tion typical of Stuttgart. The actually three-storey building thus looks two storeys high
when seen from the city and the construction mass is felt to be small and adequate.
Besides the shell-limestone cladding of the staircase and the front part of the building
towards the hillside, a circumferential façade of anodised aluminium panels and bands
of glass with side-hung windows shaped the image. Due to its positioning and the muted
brown-grey colouring of the façades, the building merged into the surrounding green of
nearby Uhlandshöhe and became part of the “cityscape”.
Open living- and working spaces instead of office cubicles
Despite the poor state of the building, to conserve the qualities of the place the architect
refrained from a total demolition as it had originally been planned. Instead, the con-
vated according to the latest energetic requirements. Available building materials were
recycled, used again and, together with new, resource-conserving and preferably incom-
bustible thermal insulation material, integrated into durable and almost maintenance-
free constructions. The gutting of the ground floor also made it possible to transform the
existing administration building with its classic cubicle offices into openly structured
living and working areas. Overall, the conversion takes up the clear, architectural ele-
ments and principles of the former building, interprets them and continues them in a
new, modern architectural context. In the process, the classic division of the building into
a block and a base was conserved. The choice of materials and colours was also suitably
interpreted in a new way. While the east façade and the staircase kept their shell-lime-
stone cladding, the new concept of the rest of the façade surfaces presented a challenge
as to structure, energy consumption and design since materials and a design vocabulary
had to be found which would do justice to the hybrid functions of living and working.
That was why the façades of the two upper storeys were completely replaced with ener-
getically high-quality metal-glass façades with new window elements – with the excepti-
on of the areas clad with natural stone which were given consistent inside insulation. The
parapet height of the window elements was reduced from 90 to 40 centimetres and the
window plane was designed to be slightly projecting and receding which makes the buil-
ding gain plasticity in its current state. Window profiles and opening vents are darkly ano-
dised so they visually become part of the band of glass.
The connection with the exterior was intensified
The originally almost not at all insulated base covered in natural stone was also energe-
tically renovated and clad with a high-quality plaster. The openings towards the garden
side, previously designed as windows with parapets, were enlarged to extend storey-high
in order to intensify the connection with the exterior. In addition, with a new shade of
grey as its colour, the base was deliberately made to look different from the upper sto-
reys. This highlights the “floating look” of this part of the construction. In contrast to the
earlier building, which was exclusively used for administrative purposes, the spatial-
functional division on the inside now allows two uses: On the ground floor and the first
upper level, bright, spacious offices are now found while, on the second upper level,
there are living spaces designed to look open-plan. A continuous pigmented oak floor
emphasizes the consistency of the living area. The white-painted parapet elements of the
office floor consist of oak in the living rooms to underline the residential atmosphere.
Grundriss 1. Obergeschoss (Büro) • Floor plan Level +1 (Office) Grundriss 2. Obergeschoss (Wohnen) • Floor plan Level +2 (Living)