Page 85 - AIT0324_E-Paper

Entwurf • Design Demo Working Group, Köln
Grundriss (vor Umbau) • Floor plan (before conversion)
Grundriss (nach Umbau) • Floor plan (after conversion)
Bauherr • Client Nancy Pofahl, Köln
Standort • Location Köln
Nutzfläche • Floor space 82 m 2
Fotos • Photos Jan Voigt, Köln
Mehr Infos auf Seite • More info on page 134
IDK FAMILY FLAT
IN COLOGNE
A striking room divider in the visual axis, room-dividing
wall discs, large glass fronts and lots of marble that sets
colourful accents. No, we are not talking about one of
the most important buildings of classical modernism –
the Barcelona Pavilion. And Barcelona is not the locati-
on. We are talking about a flat in Cologne, for which the
Demo Working Group took on the conversion.
T he white – partly 19-storey – residential complex in question is loca-
ted just a 30-minute train journey from Cologne Cathedral and has
been home to a conglomerate of flat-roofed buildings of varying heights
since the 1970s. Not far from the Poller Rheinaue city district and sur-
rounded by plenty of greenery, an allotment site and a series of detached
houses, the large structure stands out. According to the Cologne-based
architects, they are now planning to build on the euphoria with which
it was developed and are starting the transformation of a flat under this
optimistic credo. 82 square metres, small by today’s standard where 47
square metres per person are average in Germany, four rooms, intended
for two adults and two children – resources regarding space are limited,
but the courage to think innovatively about space is definitely not. So,
the three Cologne architects Tim Panzer, Thorsten Pofahl and Matthias
Hoffmann made a clean sweep and ordered to remove all the walls
that had no structural significance. What remains is an installation wall
adjacent to the main bathroom and, orthogonal to it, a lengthwise wall
disc that divides the flat into two areas of almost equal size: On one side
are the family members’ individual rooms, while the other is used as
a large communal living space. Complemented by specially developed
sliding walls, a changeable floor-plan structure is created – designed to
react spontaneously to the lives of the people who live there. The archi-
tects answer the critical question of the usual space requirements per
head with multifunctionality. For example, two small children’s rooms
can be turned into one large room and the formerly enclosed bathroom
into an open laundry room as required. The constant interplay between
private and communal extends through to the fully openable window
frontage, which quickly transports the living area to the threshold of
a blurred boundary between inside and outside. The reflective green
marble floor also helps to expand the space – at least visually – while
the sandblasted concrete walls offer plenty of room to develop. Taken to
the functional extreme of the spatial conditions, this flat is an example
of the new, versatile way of thinking about space.
AIT 3.2024 • 085