The Wohlfahrt-Laymann House | Frankfurt,Germany | Meixner Schlüter Wendt Architekten

Project data:
client: Jürgen und Juliane Wohlfahrt-Laymann
project size: approx. 300 sqm
start of construction: 2005
completion: 2006

Concept:
The Wohlfahrt-Laymann dwelling is situated in a heterogeneous residential area in the Taunus hills area outside Frankfurt am Main – a high property value neighbourhood.
The house which was already present on the site was built in the 1930s and the first idea was to replace this building with a larger house.
However, after a detailed inspection of the site and the quality of this very picturesque, traditional „simple country cottage“, the idea was born to use this existing building as the initial point for further planning.
The concept of a complex transformation of this archetypical house is developed out of the necessity for both extensions and the optimisation of the building physics.
In fact a new shell is built round this house – thus a new interior and intermediate space is created which can be used as new room.
The position of the shell and thus its individual distance at different points from the „inner“ house is dictated by the functional requirements of the ground plan structure.
The inner house is opened or rather broken open where light or space are required for its interior – these light or room extensions are projected onto the outer shell in the form of „light connections“ or „space connections“ and transferred to this as perforations.
The roof of the inner house is opened – the rooms in the roof are extended upward with vertical spacing connections.
Inner/ outer/ intermediate/ and un-rooms of manifold and sometimes „curious“ kinds are generated. Complex and seemingly simple rooms alternate with each other.
Paradoxes occur – from inside and outside – a seemingly normal reality becomes distorted.
A simple, traditional „cottage in the country“ which originated as a matter-of-course is dissolved, transformed and simultaneously fortified – in the sense of a metamorphosis.
There are analogies e.g. to the „House Ur“ from Gregor Schneider (Biennale Venice 2003 - German Pavilion) and works by Gordon Matta-Clark.
The concept of the conversion becomes viable and sensible due to the fact that the proportions of the existing house can be „coated“ with a shell construction of normal dimensions and because the existing structure of the inner house is used very efficiently - in particular the previously unused roof area can be extended very efficiently.
The solid shell represents an optimum upgrading of the building physics due to the - in this respect – inadequately thin original wooden walls.
The inner house becomes a „wooden insert/furnishing within a shell which is in accordance with the modern achievements of building physics.
The form of the light and space connections and their perforated outlines on the facade, are derived from the existing openings of the inner house, the new necessary apertures or the superimposition of both old and new openings.
The colour concept distinguishes between the elements house – space connections – shell; intending a rather more abstract legibility of the transformation.
The dark brown earth covering the garden is apparently continued in the equally dark brown flooring of the terrace and the parquet floor inside the house.
The grey-green colouring of the outer shell integrates well into the colours of the surrounding woodlands.......more

Residence Schluter | Karlsruhe,Germany | Meixner Schlueter Wendt Architects

The task consisted of planning a comfortable house for a family with four children on a generously proportioned plot.
The plot is situated in the „Waldstadt“ in Karlsruhe – a residential estate built in the 1960s which is completely integrated into a pine tree wood.
The direct vicinity is characterised by the pine trees, large plots of real estate and heterogeneous detached one family homes.
The concept envisages an „accentuated relationship“ of the processed architectonic space/mass (dwelling) with the open, „natural“ space (pine trees/ gardens).
The model here is the observation of this „accentuated relationship“ in quarries and in „dissolving buildings“. In accordance with these natural spatial processes, a monolithic, architectonic mass is subtracted.
In this process, open intermediate spaces result (loggia/ terrace and entrance area) and continue into the interior.
A reciprocal spatial flow, outside – inside is constituted.
Through the transformation of an everyday principle, the fluctuation of mass and space becomes perceptible – in particular of space as deducted mass.
The actual form of the building is developed out of the individual requirements and allocation of the functional areas, out of the construction and the exposure to light.
The form of the building, such as the roofing of the loggia area, controls the incidence of light during the day and over the year.
In the transition periods of spring and autumn with low positions of the sun, the sun shines into the living area.
In summer, the effect of the sun is kept away from the interior by the structure of the building itself. There is no necessity for sun protection or air conditioning.....more

House F | Kronberg,Germany | Meixner Schlüter Wendt Architekten

Project data:

client: undisclosed

project size: approx. 300 sqm

start of construction: 2005

completion: 2007

Concept:

The starting point for the planning of the house was the goal of coupling the residential quality and the topography of the idyllic orchard lawn with the living rooms of the house.

Due to the stipulation of a pitched roof by the authorities and in connection with the individually designed roofs of the current and historical buildings in the neighbourhood, an interesting debate ensues on the subject of pitched roofs. From this, the concept of subdividing the new building into three zones develops:

1) The ground floor is completely submerged in the earth (cellar).

2) The garden floor, of which the base is oriented to the topography of the plot of land, is openly embedded in the orchard lawn.

3) Upon this, the corporeal top floor completes the contours of an ostensibly pitched roof type of house.

The associative ambivalent perception is, on the one hand, a normal pitched roof house, built on a slope, where the mass of the garden floor has been subtracted, and on the other hand, a levitated flying object, which thus accentuates the openness of the garden floor.

It is a good example for the idea that although architecture is always subject to static conditions, with use of a specific perception strategy and a visual association a building can get rid of its gravity.

The actual form is based on a synthesis of this associative form design with fundamental criteria such as function, construction, material, lighting etc.

The garden floor is completely glassed, in order to connect the interior with the orchard lawn in an unbroken flow. Also in a flowing manner, the orchard lawn is furnished both inside and outside with boxes and spaces.

The top story appears to be a levitated body. The sheet-metal cladding echoes the ambivalence of roof and vehicle.

Text and images from:Meixner Scluter Wendt Architekten