In Stuttgart Süd, on one of the Heslach slopes, the office of VON M has found one of those still open plots of land that are becoming so rare in the city. Because of its topography, on the steeply rising slope to the south, it was long considered almost impossible to build on. The architects have developed two almost identical houses here, each with an almost square floor plan. The design takes up both the eaves height of the neighbouring house to the east and its building depth as a benchmark element. Since the building had to dig up to three storeys into the ground due to the extreme slope of the property, it quickly became clear that a large part of the house had to be made of concrete. In order to keep planning and construction costs low, the planners designed a catalogue of simple details and joints with precast concrete elements, which now characterise the entire semi-detached house.
Aware of the difficulties of the building material with regard to its CO2 emissions, VON M subsequently developed a flexible interior for the robust concrete shell with the aim of enabling various To enable floor plan variants that will also allow for conversions in the future. To do this, they established a cross-shaped floor plan scheme that was decorated with light curtains, wooden partitions or cupboards options of interior joining. Even if the respective places in the floor plan are not covered by a wall, wooden strips embedded in the floor indicate the scheme and provide a subtle zoning of the rooms. This not only ensures that the floor plan variants actually implemented in both houses are adequate for the respective residents, but that the residents can also make changes in the future that correspond to the changes in their respective living conditions.
From the street, both parts of the semi-detached house look like identical twins: small front gardens, floor-to-ceiling, large window openings, recesses for entrance loggias on the ground floor and small terraces in the attic, plus the joint pattern of the precast concrete elements. The industrial character of the prefabrication is underlined by the lattice balustrades in front of the French doors and terraces. All this follows the slope of the road, the joints of the respective components merge finely in the system and bear witness to the careful detailed planning.
Following a logical consequence towards more privacy, the rooms develop from the public of the street into the house and there successively upwards. A small forecourt is like a spatial threshold between the street and the house, which is terrace, driveway, front garden and garbage can enclosure in equal measure. On the ground floor there is a universally usable room, which provides both parking space for Two-wheelers could be like a workplace or guest room, two slope-side storage rooms and a guest toilet. The stairwell is accompanied by an air space almost as high as a house, which can be retrofitted with an elevator at a later date if necessary. The aesthetics of the exterior are continued unabated here: concrete and the already familiar industrial grilles for parapets and handrails. [...]
Text: David Kasparek
Photos: Zooey Braun
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