The building closes a gap in the second row of a typical Berlin perimeter block development. In 1906, the front and rear buildings were built here, but the rear building was destroyed in the war and not rebuilt.
The cubature of the new gap closure is largely identical to the original pre-war development and, with its S-shape, encloses two backyards in a block. Together with the street-facing outdoor space in front of the front building, three typologically different courtyard situations are created, which are characterised by their different usage requirements. The theme of the courtyards and their development is conceptually elaborated from the public street space to the central middle courtyard to the quieter, green garden courtyard via changes in pavement, topography, furnishings and vegetation.
While historic backyards often represent sober functional spaces for lighting and development, which are hidden behind the ornate facades of the front buildings, here they form independent places with a high spatial quality, where quiet living in the middle of the city is possible.
The building's rough mineral materials and perforated façade are based on the Berlin townhouses in the neighborhood. However, large floor-to-ceiling windows and the two-storey ground floor façade allow for its own identity, which is not hidden behind the front building, but allows its own address in the backyards of the development.
The mix of apartments in the 24 units is varied and ranges from single to family apartments. The clever configuration of duplex apartments on the ground floors around the courtyards enables inner-city ground floor living with plenty of privacy and private access. A large entrance hall works analogously to the passageway in the front building and connects the backyards with each other. In the materialization of the interiors, many surfaces are left raw so as not to hide the dwindling traces of craftsmanship in modern housing construction and to maintain the essence that is inherent in them as an atmospheric element.
Outdoor installation:
BBS Landsscape
Shell:
Kasimir Hochbau
Lift:
House rooster
Concrete cosmetics:
SB5ÜNF
Window:
Tischlerei & Fensterbau Jähnke
Heating, ventilation, sanitation:
GTB Building Technology Berlin
Letterbox & parcel box:
Lippert Berlin
[Text: Appels Architekten] (https://www.appels-arch.ch/aa003)
Pictures: Simon Menges
#rieder #gutmann #mira #contour
