Page 136 - AIT0716_E-Paper

WOHNEN • LIVING INNERE WERTE • INNER VALUES

E xchanging city living in the style of the late 19th century, with stucco and parquet
and with plenty of ceiling heights, for country air, a semi-detached house from the
1960s and ceiling heights almost low enough to touch? This was the dilemma facing us
as a family of four when we – driven by the disproportionate trend of prices in the
Stuttgart real-estate market – began considering buying a house in Waldenbuch from the
1960s. Dealing with buildings from this period has by now also become a main focus
of activities in our architectural office. This again and again confronts us with the same
question: Doesn’t an essential issue remain unconsidered when all the attention is paid
on fire protection, insulation values, alternative energy generation. And – above all in
the construction of private homes – the attention paid to the multitude of different credit
models from the KfW banks for energy-efficient renovation while, of course, for every
single aspect a further specialist play a role in the planning? – The feeling of space!
Difficult to verify let alone transfer into eligible applications according to all the general-
ly valid guidelines! Well, in our case, the property of choice in the small town of
Waldenbuch, located half an hour by car south of Stuttgart, wasn’t an architectural icon
of this epoch designed by Sep Ruf, Egon Eiermann, let alone by Richard Neutra. Despite
this, after going up the stairs from the entrance level, we were immediately convinced
Alle Einbauten in der Garderobe, der Küche sowie in den ... • All the installations in the cloakroom, the kitchen … by the view of the still overgrown garden. yAnd thus we were faced with the dilemma
already known to Egon Eiermann: “Are we meant to constantly create something new
... Bädern wurden schlicht und zurückhaltend realisiert. • ... were designed to look simple and unobtrusive.
or are we here to always further complete the things that exist?”

Are we meant to constantly create something new or ...

In the north and thus facing the street, the house is a two-storey building structure with
a small garden in front. Towards the south, however, the house accommodates the
slightly ascending topography with a storey-high structural projection and only has one
storey on the higher, southern part of the site. Here the main garden extends, quiet and
protected, with a marvellous, almost 50 year-old stock of trees and plants. On the
access level are a guest apartment and the working area with a view of the garden in
front towards the street. The basement and the technology rooms are hidden under-
ground towards the slope. Single-flight stairs – where we installed oak floorboards and
which we widened to form a seating bench at the level of the first step – leads from the
cloakroom newly covered with concrete tiles up to the living area which opens with a
glass front at ground level to the residential garden towards the south. By removing par-
tition walls, opening the so far separated kitchen and exposing the stairs leading further
up to the top floor, a flowing space was created, a generous kitchen-, dinging- and living
area. The stairs now function as a partition which, with the newly installed heating fire-
place and the opening up the ceiling all the way to the inclined roof area, emphasize.
The thus resulting high wall surface is painted in gris clair, a shade of grey from the Le
Corbusier colour range, which gives the room depth. Skylights let natural light penetrate
far into the living room. Additional colour accents are provided by screen prints – mainly
Hard Edge works by Stankowski, Pfahler, Geiger and Smith.

... are we here to complete things that exist?

Through a large sliding glass door, threshold- free one accesses the newly added woo-
den terrace which is in part covered by the building and thus, in addition to being a
constructive sun protection, also creates living space. The latter can be opened towards
the garden and, since it is covered, can also be used during summer rains. Inside, the
small-format mosaic parquet was replaced with oak-floorboards with underfoot hea-
Grundriss Untergeschoss • Basement floor plan Grundriss Erdgeschoss • Ground floor plan ting. A an existing radiator below the firmly installed glazed garden window was turned
into a seating area with white-painted wood panelling which, in the outside area, is con-
tinued to form a wooden bench on the terrace. On the eastern side of the house, in turn,
an extension building clad in vertical white wooden slats was designed which offers a
spacious and naturally illuminated bathroom and, at the same time, can be used as a
balcony for the children’s rooms on the top floor. In the bathroom and the threshold-
free shower area as well, new, heated cement tiles – this time patterned in navy blue –
create a cosy atmosphere. White, vertical wooden slats also replace a formerly dark per-
gola on the terrace and form the balustrade panelling of the balcony above the house
entrance. The carpenter uniformly and unobtrusively constructed the kitchen, shelves,
seating benches as well as the cloakroom as simple, white-painted installations with
milled grip rails or ventilation openings. The tops of the work table and the washbasins
are made of polished quartz material in the same shade of white. From the so far now
unused roof – this is where today the two children’s rooms are located – one now has
Grundriss Obergeschoss • Upper floor plan Schnitt • Section a magnificent view into the tree tops of the residential garden.

136 • AIT 7/8.2016