One Fine Day Office For Architectural Design GmbH

House H In Germany

HOUSE H

One Fine Day
Architektur-Werk-Stadt

House H In Germany
© Christian Richters

ARCHITECTS
one fine day, architektur-werk-stadt

STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING
Ingenieurgemeinschaft Bröckling Vullhorst GmbH

MANUFACTURERS
FritsJurgens, Bauwerk Parkett, Schüco

EXECUTIVE ARCHITECT
Hubert Wewer

PHOTOGRAPHS
Christian Richters

AREA
603.0 m2

YEAR
2017

LOCATION
Germany

CATEGORY
Houses

House H In Germany
© Christian Richters

CONTEXT

The design for a single-family house at the edge of a small town in the western part of Germany combines vernacular and contemporary formal language. We examined how specific regional form could be further developed with the help of digital planning tools in the sense of a contemporary "parametric regionalism”.

Here, the transformative capabilities of parametric software helped to estrange site-specific gestalt towards an architecture that is both common and uncommon to its context.

House H In Germany
© Christian Richters
House H In Germany
© Christian Richters

TYPOLOGY

The plan of House H refers to the aisled barns that are typical to the region. Their nave-and-aisle-layout often show a sort of transept (a so-called “flett” containing the central fire place), that relates the house’s basic geometry closely to a nine square grid.

We have furthered this grid with a parametric model, whose geometric elasticity helped to, cover required functions, answer building legislation, optimize structural requirements, as well as balance spatial and formal intentions. On the basis of this geometric model and controlled via a pivotal point in the centre of the plan, parts of the house can be separated and rotated apart.

House H In Germany
© Christian Richters
House H In Germany
© Christian Richters

The transformation of the plan then also instigates the transformation of the saddle roof into a relatively complex roof landscape. While the well-known shapes of the four gables remain undisturbed, the “tweening” of the roof-shapes results in curved and folded surfaces that obscure the clarity of a gabled roof.

ORGANIZATION

House H is divided into two fundamentally different zones: the wings contain areas for seclusion, such as the intimate living room, the kitchen-cum-living room, the library, as well as the family’s bedrooms upstairs.

The two-storey central space performs as the communicative centre of the house where a large dining table and a sequence of seating steps allow for formal and informal gatherings.

House H In Germany
© Christian Richters
House H In Germany
© Christian Richters
House H In Germany
© Christian Richters

MATERIAL

As fair-faced brick-facades are typical to the region House H also received a brick-façade, in this case, however, coated with a thin layer of white cement-mortar.

The roof is covered by a layer of cedar-wood lamellas, that, as a refined version of the underlying roof-framework, translates the logic of the roof’s transformational geometry. Due to the roofs form the slats are different in length and point-held with especially developed joints to float above the roof’s rainproof layer.

In contrast to the deliberately textured exterior surfaces, the interior surfaces are kept widely smooth. Polished white plaster walls and ceilings contrast the relatively large sized oak boards on the floors. The canopy-like ceiling with its softly curved surfaces appears lightweight and like a textile membrane when it receives daylight through the main skylight.

House H In Germany
© Christian Richters
House H In Germany
© Christian Richters

SUSTAINABILITY

House H has been designed beyond the requirements of the latest German energy saving regulation (EnEV). Thus, next to the application of durable materials all exterior wall and roof surfaces contain up to 20cm thick layers of thermal insulation. All windows are at least double-glazed. A brine-to-water heat pump provides the house’s heating and warm water-supply with energy.


House H In Germany
Diagram
House H In Germany
Diagram
House H In Germany
Diagram
House H In Germany
Diagram Roof


House H In Germany
Sections
House H In Germany
Sections


House H In Germany
Axonometric
House H In Germany
Axonometric


House H In Germany
Site Plan
House H In Germany
Basement
House H In Germany
Roof Plan
House H In Germany
Ground Floor Plan
House H In Germany
1st Floor Plan
House H In Germany
© Christian Richters

One Fine Day Office For Architectural Design GmbH
T +49 211 22065779 F +49 211 22065778
One Fine Day Office For Architectural Design GmbH
Gartenstraße 90, 42107 Wuppertal, Germany