Typology+ Access

 Page
Preface 7
In the Residential Building: Type, Style, ModeAn Introduction 14

Inhabiting Paths: On Ladders, Stairs, and Galleries 20

Vertical Point Access

Loft Building, Colmarerstrasse, Basel, Buchner Brndler Architekten 30
Erlimatt Residential Building, Obergeri, Dettli Nussbaumer 32
Apartment Building, Rue de lOurcq, Paris, Philippe Gazeau 36
Durkheim Residential Complex, Paris, Francis Soler 40
Hoge Heren Residential High-Rise, Rotterdam, Wiel Arets 44
Rondo Apartment Building, Zurich, Graber Pulver 48

Horizontal Corridor Access

Trnovski Pristan Condominium, Ljubljana, Sadar Vuga 52
The Whale Apartment House, Amsterdam, de Architekten Cie. 56
Miss Sargfabrik Residential Complex, Vienna, BKK-3, Franz Sumnitsch with Johnny Winter 62
Rigoletto Residential Complex, Munich, A2architekten 66
Flledhaven Residential Complex, Copenhagen, Domus 70
Breitenfurterstrae, Residential Complex, Vienna, Helmut Wimmer 76

Combinations
Falken Residential and Commercial Building, Baden, Burkard Meyer 80
Am Cllenhof Apartment Building, Bonn, Uwe Schrder 84
Calle Jos Prez Residential Complex, Madrid, Carlos Ferrater 88
Mirador Residential High-Rise, Madrid, MVRDV 92
Rosenstrae Residential Complex, Dornbirn, Gnaiger Mssler 96
KNSM-Eiland Housing Block, Amsterdam, H. Kollhoff and H. Timmermann with Christian Rapp 100
IJburg 23 Housing Complex, Amsterdam, VMX 106

10
 Typology+ Space

 Page
Living Spaces 112

Orientation / Lighting / Depth

Stanga Housing Complex, Rovinj, UOA Helena Paver Njiric 122
Housing Complex, Tokiostrae, Vienna, Adolf Krischanitz und Ulrich Huhs 126
Hofgarten Housing Complex, Zurich, Galli & Rudolf 130
Am Katzenbach Housing Complex, Zurich, Zita Cotti 136
Lux Housing Complex, Vienna, pool Architektur 140
Kraftwerk 1 Housing Complex, Zurich, Stcheli with Bnzli & Courvoisier 144
Werdwies Residential Complex, Zurich, Adrian Streich 148
Amsterdam 315 Housing Complex, Mexico City, JS designdevelopment
a
152
Neumnsterallee Housing Complex, Zurich, Gigon Guyer 156
Loft Building at Alfonso Reyes 58, Mexico City, Dellekamp 160

Relationship of Individual and Common Spaces

Schwarzer Laubfrosch Housing Complex, Bad Waltersdorf, SPLITTERWERK 164
Estradehaus Housing Complex, Berlin, Wolfram Popp 168
Carabanchel Housing Complex, Madrid, Aranguren + Gallegos 172
Theresienhhe Housing Complex, Munich, HildundK with Tilmann Rohnke 176
Bhnli Apartment Building, Zurich, Guignard & Saner 180
RiffRaff Apartment Building, Zurich, Meili, Peter Architekten with Staufer & Hasler Architekten 184
Apartment Building on Hohlstrasse, Zurich, Peter Mrkli + Gody Khnis 188
Housing Complex, Fukuoka, Steven Holl 192

3-D
Housing Complex on Hertha-Firnberg-Strae, Vienna, Cuno Brullmann 196
Egota Apartment Building, Tokyo, Kazunari Sakamoto 200
Gifu Kitagata Housing Complex, Motosu, Kazuyo Sejima 204
Monbijou Housing Complex, Berlin, Grntuch Ernst 208
Housing Complex on Siewerdtstrasse, Zurich, EM2N 212
Apartment Building, Teufen, Covas Hunkeler Wyss 216
Space Block Housing Complex, Hanoi Model, Kazuhiro Kojima 220

Diverse Units, Combinations

Housing Complex on Leimbachstrasse, Zurich, pool Architekten 224
Gradaka Housing Complex, Ljubljana, Sadar Vuga 230
VM Housing Complex, Copenhagen, PLOT=JDS+BIG 236

11
Typology+ Exterior

 Page
Inhabiting NatureOn the Value of Outdoor Spaces in Multistory Apartment Buildings 244

Balcony
Am Eulachpark Housing Complex, Winterthur, Burkhalter Sumi 254
St. Alban-Ring Housing Complex, Basel, Morger Degelo 258
Housing Complex, Montpellier, douard Franois 262
Burriweg Housing Complex, Zurich, Frank Zierau 266

Loggia
Housing Complex on Susenbergstrasse, Zurich, Gigon Guyer 270
Nuovo Portello Residential Towers, Milan, Cino Zucchi 274
Sthelimatt Housing Complex, Zurich, Esch Architekten 278
Reussinsel Housing Complex, Lucerne, Andreas Rigert + Patrik Bisang 282
Glattpark Housing Complex, Opfikon, von Ballmoos Krucker 286

Terrace
Housing Complex at Amsterdam 253, Mexico City, Taller 13 Arquitectos 290
Sphinxen Housing Complex, Huizen, Neutelings Riedijk Architects 294
Breevaarthoek Housing Complex, Gouda, KCAP 298
De Eekenhof Housing Complex, Enschede, Claus en Kaan Architecten 302

Two-Story Exterior Spaces

Vertikalgartenhaus Housing Complex, Vienna, Geiswinkler & Geiswinkler 308
Housing Complex on 10th Avenue, Vancouver, LWPAC 312
Paul-Clairmont-Strasse Housing Complex, Zurich, Gmr & Steib 316

12
 Typology+ Morphology

 Page
Designing the Building Volume and the Site or the Type as Method 322

Volumes
House B Housing Complex, Venice, Cino Zucchi 328
Wandsworth Workshops, London, Sergison Bates 332
Housing Complex on Linzer Strae, Vienna, Atelier Seraji 336
Hollainhof Housing Complex, Ghent, Neutelings Riedijk Architects 340
Multifamily Building on Zurlindenstrasse, Zurich, Huggen Berger 346
Serra Xic Housing Complex, Barcelona, Josep Llins Carmona 350

Layering
Mhlweg Housing Complex, Vienna, Hermann and Johannes Kaufmann 354
Tower Flower Housing Complex, Paris, douard Franois 358
Apartment Buildings on Hohenbhlstrasse, Zurich, agps.architecture 362
Prinsenhoek, Housing Complex, Sittard, Neutelings Riedijk Architects 366
Westpark Housing Complex, Frankfurt, Stefan Forster Architekten 370

Opening
Mercat de Santa Caterina Housing Complex, Barcelona, Miralles Tagliabue EMBT 374
House A Housing Complex, Venice, Cino Zucchi 378
sterbrogade Housing Complex, Copenhagen, C. F. Mller 382
Kajplats Housing Complex, Malm, Gert Wingrdh 386
Housing Complex on Landsberger Strae, Munich, Fink + Jocher 390
Am Schwarzpark Housing Complex, Basel, Miller & Maranta 394

Index
Addresses Architects / Photographers 400
Sort Criteria 410
Editors 430

13
In the Residential Building: Type, Style, Model
An Introduction

14
Typologie+ Einleitung
I became aware that a house has to be understood as a type. [] The residential building viewed as a suit tailored to the subjective
[W]hen you build a house, the client is the first occupant; perhaps desires of the occupants is a relatively recent phenomenon in the his-
twenty years later other people will live in it. When I design a house tory of housing. The dream house, seen as the subconscious ren-
today, I start out from the rooms, without defining them more close- dered in stone, has become the psychological profile of the clients
ly; they can be used in different ways, and what the occupants make individuality. This concept was supported by the state subsidy of
of them determines what they are. Living in the rooms is part of ar- home ownership, which flourished in the second half of the twentieth
chitecture.1 century. It made the link between property and individuality a uni-
 Michael Alder versal. It was no longer a privilege to build a house according to ones
own desires, dreams, and ideas but rather a concomitant of a social
order that appealed to the concept of individuality.
The statement by Michael Alder quoted in the epigraph emphasizes
that housing has to be considered from the perspective of the specific
implementation, since a residential building has a significantly longer
lifecycle than its first occupant and/or client. In central Europe, hous-
ing loans typically have terms of twenty to thirty years; in Japan, by
contrast, as many as ninety years are granted for repayment. That
alone makes it clear that the first occupant and the architect should
think about creating a home for later generations, for the owners
heirs or legal successors. With that in mind, it becomes important to
think of the residential building once again as a typological phenom-
enon, as Alder suggests.
This has little to do, however, with a discussion that is currently
enjoying something of a boom. For example, a journal article re-
cently asked Wohnen im Typus Was heit das? 2 (Living in a
type What does that mean?). Another article examined design
models such as the grid, the type, the pattern, and related planning
strategies against the backdrop of the rapid development of compu-
ter power and the resulting progress in the CAD (computer-aided
design) and CAM (computer-aided manufacturing) sectors. 3 This
debate is remarkable precisely because the concept of the type has
lost its appeal. Thus Andr Bideau argued in 2000: Back then [in
the 1970s], the concept of typology played a crucial role in the de-
velopment of the critical and scholarly objectivity with which post-
modernism reestablished the autonomy of architecture. Thanks to
the traces of use and repetition left behind in the typology, robust
architecture was in a position to react selectively in its design to the
challenges of its specific environment either by means of mor-
phological figuration or by means of applying images and symbols.
Today, however, an engagement with typology does not so much
offer a dialectic for design, much less a means to resistance. At most
it offers one possibility among others to modulate space. 4 Elegant-

15
ly but also enduringly, an architectural discourse that was cultivated through its facade; the building becomes part of the city that it shapes
over decades has been composted. In the journal trans, the central at the same time. The examples chosen for this chapter are intended
theoretical organ of the ETH Zrich (Eidgenssische Technische to explore in particular the possibilities that contemporary materials
Hochschule, or Swiss Federal Institute of Technology), Nicola Bragh- and techniques offer to formulate the urban-planning context. If res-
ieri went further: Over the last fifty years, typology has been a kind idential buildings can be said to form a citys body, then their facades
of religion in architectural theory. 5 With a typology as creed, the can be called its smiling face.
cornerstone was set for an enlightened discourse. Beyond such ques- It was Rafael Moneo who recognized the formulation of new types as
tions of faith, however, our title, Typology+, is intended to address a creative process and hence identified the continuous evolution in
central problems of multistory residential buildings. For that reason, typology: When a new type emerges when an architect is able to
the concept of type is defined only vaguely here. Archetype, proto- describe a new set of formal relations which generates a new group
type, type what interests us is the oscillation of the term, not its of buildings or elements then that architects contribution has
rigid constriction. reached the level of generality and anonymity that characterizes ar-
In preparation for this book, hundreds of contemporary residential chitecture as a discipline.6
buildings were examined and their particular qualities studied and For Moneo, a type in architecture has an identifiable author, a spe-
categorized. Four aspects served as leitmotifs in that process: In the cific architect who develops it by creating a new principle of for-
first category, we included the path to the house and the forms of in- mal relationships, as Moneo describes it, and hence strives for an
ternal circulation have been summed up in typological groups. The anonymity in the result that constitutes the essence of architecture.
systems of access and circulation structure a residence and thus shape At the same time, this anonymity makes it possible for the type to
quite fundamentally how residents live together. Access is also the become the basis for concrete examples by other authors. Therein
thread that links the building to the networks of the city. The systems lies the central aspect of a genuine type: it possesses, despite its
of communication are therefore one of the essential qualities of resi- identifiable inventor, such a degree of universality and anonymity
dential architecture. Another essential quality is its outdoor spaces. that it can be used by others by the discipline in general. The
They have long since become the most important asset in the quality edifice of architecture would thus be the collection of architectural
of housing in conurbations. The objective of this chapter is to demon- types and parts of buildings whose stock can be fundamentally ex-
strate the distinct modes of outdoor spaces, as embodied in loggias, panded.
roof terraces, and balconies. We have deliberately focused on the pri- Quatremre de Quincy, the inventor of the modern concept of type,
vate outdoor space assigned to an apartment, not the public space. also pointed to a developmental aspect: In every country, the or-
The third factor in this typological presentation is the living spaces derly art of building was born from a pre-existing seed. Everything
themselves. This book hopes to show that they have been subject to a must have an antecedent, nothing whatsoever comes from nothing,
striking transformation in recent decades. On the one hand, the diver- and this cannot but apply to all human inventions. We observe also
sity of types has increased; on the other, they are used quite differ- how all inventions, in spite of subsequent changes, have conserved
ently as a result of social change keyword: service economy and their elementary principle in a manner that is always visible, and al-
the increased overlapping of the workplace and the home. Living in ways evident to feeling and reason. This elementary principle is like
the rooms is part of architecture, wrote Michael Alder. The individu- a sort of nucleus around which are assembled, and with which are
ality of housing is echoed in this. It demonstrates most clearly, per- consequently coordinated, all the developments and the variations of
haps, how typological thinking influences things. It does not by any form to which the object was susceptible. Thus did a thousand of all
means lead to monotony; on the contrary, it opens up a horizon of sorts reach us; and in order to understand their reasons, one of the
diversity. principal occupations of science and philosophy is to search for their
The fourth and final category is the design of the building volume. origin and primitive cause. This is what ought to be called type in
This chapter is a synthesis of the earlier ones and shapes their parts architecture as in every other area of human invention and institu-
into a whole. A residential building speaks to its surroundings tion.7 The French architectural theorist elegantly navigates around

16
Typologie+ Einleitung
the shoal of the question how a type is constituted, since the motif of
development, symbolized by the seed, is contrasted by the image of
the hard, seemingly unchanging nucleus. The seed and the nucleus
constitute Quincys pair of biological concepts that embrace the vari-
ance and constancy of the type, which reconciles its ability to trans-
form and renew with its seemingly antithetical persistent and un-
changing character. This reference to the roots of typology will have
to suffice here. In the introductions to each chapter, we take up these
connections and historical bridges again.
When we describe buildings or individual parts of buildings and their
possibilities in this book as they are found in contemporary residen-
tial architecture, we do so, on the one hand, in a conscious effort to
convey solution-oriented information that offers to all those involved
in residential architecture specific opportunities and inspiration for
solutions and, on the other hand, with the conviction that these types
have the potential to continue to generate and transform. The typolo-
gies described here do not constitute a catalog of models or building
parts. This book is not intended to be yet another building block in
the wide-ranging landscape of architectural theory; rather, it is in-
tended to provide architects with inspiration for their work and with
basic research into new developments.
The design of buildings, of the outdoor spaces that surround them or Notes
are woven into them, of the systems of access and circulation, and of 1 Quoted in Martin Steinmann, Das Haus ist meine Welt: Zum ar-
the spatial configurations of the apartments themselves are the typo- chitektonischen Denken von Michael Alder, werk, bauen und
logical categories according to which we have examined the architec- wohnen 6 (2001): 3849, esp. 42.
ture of multistory residential buildings; they are not exhaustive but, 2 Sabine Pollak, Maja Lorbek, and Robert Temel, Wohnen im

we hope, they offer a useful tool for the craft of residential architec- Typus, Architektur & Bauforum 7 (2008): 12.
ture. 3 See the thematic focus in Entwurfsmuster: Raster, Typus, Pattern,

Script, Algorithmus, Ornament, ARCH+ 189 (2008).

4 Andr Bideau, De-Typologisierung (Editorial), werk, bauen und

wohnen 3 (2000): 89, esp. 9.

5 Nicola Braghieri, Theorie und Technik in der architektonischen

Planung, in transLate (2004): 67, esp. 6.

6 Rafael Moneo, On Typology, Oppositions 13 (1978): 2245,

esp. 28.
7 Antoine-Chrysostome Quatremre de Quincy, The True, the Fictive,

and the Real: The Historical Dictionary of Architecture of Quatrem-

re de Quincy, trans. Samir Youns (London: Andreas Papadakis,
1999), 255., quoted in part in Aldo Rossi, The Architecture of the
City, trans. Diane Ghirardo and Joan Ockman (Cambridge, MA:
MIT Press, 1982), 40.

17
 BKK-3, Miss Sargfabrik
Schema
M 1:1000

de Architekten Cie, The Whale Schema M1:1000

Ferrater_schema, M 1:1000

Wiel Arts, Tower Hoge Heren Rotterdam, M 1:200, Schema Erschliessung + Freie Flchen

MVRDV, MIRADOR, M 1:1000, SCHEMA (19.OG)

18
Erschlieung Intro
VMX, Erschliessung Turm, M 1_1000

Schema Erschliessung M 1_1000

Access+

19
Inhabiting Paths: On Ladders, Stairs, and Galleries

And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top
of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and
descending on it. And, behold, the LORD stood above it, and said, I 1 2
am the LORD God of Abraham thy father ...
 Jacobs dream, Genesis 28:1213

Before the profane words access and circulation entered the vo- left but a functional remnant that compels users to get through this
cabulary of architects, stairs, stairwells, lobbies, and galleries were space as quickly as possible. But hasnt the elimination of everything
spaces that also symbolized stepping over boundaries and reaching that goes beyond the purely physical overcoming of a difference in
higher levels. It might seem presumptuous, and meaningless as well, height led to us experiencing a continuous impoverishment of these
to call to mind the religious, spiritual, and even occult qualities of communicative spaces? Within the context of multi-story residen-
steps and ladders. For William Blake, one of the great mystics in the tial construction, this means that the residents outdoors i nteraction
history of art, Jacobs Ladder, which connected the worldly to the areas are, as a rule, restricted entirely to streets, walkways, and
heavenly, was closed related to the anatomy of the human ear, whose parking places. In the interiors of buildings, intera ction areas
auditory canal he described as an endlessly twisting spiral ascent to among apartments are likewise generally reduced to the minimum
the Heaven of Heavens.1 He saw the opening of the inner ear in turn degree necessary, in stairwells and corridors. Floor space is typi-
as the precondition for making contact with higher worlds. cally dedicated to achieve a maximum of pure dwelling-unit floor
space. 2
The stairway in its most original form: chopped out of a single
tree trunk symbolizes the connection of heaven and earth in yet Sociologists recognized this problem early on and as early as the
another way. Its zigzag line is found as a symbol both in primitive 1960s Jane Jacobs, for example recommended spaces of access
cultures and in Neolithic Bandkeramik. This line is an emblem for and circulation that could serve as a place for social interaction.
lightning, which connects heaven and earth in a violent discharge. The sociologizing of architecture during the decades that followed
The violence it contains has always been a sign of (the anger of) produced an entire apparatus of theorems and criteria intended as a
God, and it is an attribute of the supreme divinity: Zeus/Jupiter way of looking exterior spaces and areas for access and circulation
among the Greeks and Romans and Donar/Thor among the Ger- in an integrated way, in the context of surroundings as well as of the
manic gods. The destructive lightning is followed by redemptive/ city as a whole. Scholars of (the architecture of) housing went so far
fertile rain, with the rainbow as the sign of the renewed covenant as to assign certain types of living to particular types of hous-
between God and man. ing and to define not only access and circulation within an apart-
ment building as a parameter but also how it is opened up or closed
The kivas of the Hopi Indians have such steps carved from a single off.3 Supposedly, such residential dwellings, with a high degree of
tree, leading to the communal rooms for religious ceremonies. The seclusion, naturally appeal to the introverted kind of resident. These
important art and cultural historian Aby Warburg referred to these kinds of residents primarily consist of singles who work at home,
connections and demonstrated them with material he had collected reserved couples without children, and retired men and women. 4
on his trip to Hopi reservations in the late nineteenth century. The The open apartment is suited to the needs of a normal resident,
exceptional significance that stairwells had is also evident from the including those who are closely bound to their living area by their
great castles from the Gothic era by way of the Baroque to the ar- dependency (for example, children), by their activities (say, house-
chitecture of the museums, theaters, and opera houses with which wives), or by their physical condition (such as old people). 5 Hence
the bourgeoisie asserted its rise. The splendid architecture of the senior citizens who are considering a closed type of apartment have
Chteau de Chambord is organized around its grand staircase. The to be sprightly, while the elderly for whom the open type is suited
double-helix staircase is emphasized in the view from outside by are more fragile that is, if these two quotations do not represent
means of an imaginative lantern structure on the roof terrace. We a fundamental contradiction. Be that as it may, it is clear that so-
need only allude to magnificent Baroque stairs, like those of Wrz- ciology opened up a broad field for projections and attempted to
burg Castle. Such allusions may seem out of place in the context of justify them scientifically. However, the dilemma goes much deeper.
a typological depiction of forms of access in modern architecture. The laudable effort to attribute social value to areas for access and
But can these aspects of stairs and stairwells simply be brushed circulation and the planned socialization of common areas merely
aside? For reasons of cost savings, the paths to apartments in a scratches the surface of the problem. For we have long since inter-
residential building are kept as short as possible, until nothing is nalized the idea that a stately staircase in a contemporary residential

20
 3 4 5

building is a contradiction in terms. Why should a place where peo- with a standard rise and minimum width, under the influence of
ple are not supposed to linger be enhanced by aesthetic means? The bibles of standardization like Ernst Neuferts Bauentwurfslehre
Enlightenment probably marks the beginning of first questioning (translated as Architects Data) they atrophied into wallflowers. 6
and then eliminating everything that does not serve a rationally de- The difficult part is structuring the communal in residential archi-
fined purpose. And it is no coincidence that it was the architects and tecture. How the residents of a housing complex people who, as
architectural theorists of the revolutionary age who first thought a rule, do not know one another before moving in (and when they
systematically about the most economical forms of access and circu- do, perhaps discover only later how different they are) come to-
lation. They were presumably the first to concern themselves with gether, form a community, and live as individuals is something that
the new social conflicts conflicts that have established the rhythm every generation has to invent anew. The following examples are
of history since the French Revolution. The structuring of contexts positive approaches influenced by this set of problems. Typologi-
becomes a crucial theme for two aspects: structures that provide cal analysis offers a system that shows a planner the possibilities
access to more than one unit per floor are considerably more cost- a certain type of access offers, what it cannot offer, which milieus
effective. Minimizing the costs for stairwells, corridors, and eleva- can adapt to it, and which cannot. It offers only such possibilities,
tors is one of the crucial themes for the architecture of multistory
residential buildings. This economics of privation characterized the
large-scale residential buildings of the twentieth century. The idea of
designing the access and circulation areas for this new architectural
task to be communal spaces was established in reformist social hous-
ing projects like the Familistre Godin in the nineteenth century and,
to single out one significant example, the Spangen housing complex
in Rotterdam in the twentieth.

One consequence of the push to economize was that people moved

closer together, so that communities had to be formed and entire- Fig. 1. Philipp Otto Runge, Perspectival construction of a spiral
ly new parameters emerged. Although housing had always been a staircase. From: Alexander Roob, The Hermetic Museum: Alchemy
problem for society no matter whether in the Paleolithic era, in and Mysticism, trans. Shaun Whiteside (Cologne: Taschen, 1997),
ancient Rome, or in overfilled medieval cities with their alleys and 296. Credit: Biblioteca Nazionale, Florence
ghettos it first became an autonomous task on which people re- Fig. 2. William Blake, Jacobs Ladder, ca. 1800. From: Alexander
flected systematically and developed solutions during the Industrial Roob, The Hermetic Museum: Alchemy and Mysticism, trans.
Revolution, when the goal was to house the proletarian masses. Shaun Whiteside (Cologne: Taschen, 1997), 297.
From the outset, fear of the political volatility of the masses was a Fig. 3. Rabbi Lw in his alchemy workshop with a spiral staircase
consideration in the design of apartments for workers or for fami- in the form of a human ear. Still from Paul Wegeners Der Golem,
lies. It is no surprise, therefore, that little interest was shown and wie er in die Welt kam (1920); stage set: Hans Poelzig. Photo:
not just for economic reasons in generous spaces for lingering Deutsches Filminstitut
outside of the housing units. The questions what these new commu- Fig. 4. Pueblos with ladders. Photo: Aby Warburg. Credit: Max
nities that would necessarily emerge there might look like, by what Hollein and Pamela Kort, eds., I Like America: Fictions of the Wild
parameters they could be defined (class, culture, nation, and so on) West, exh. cat., Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt (Munich: Prestel,
did not simply parallel modern society; they shaped it quite funda- 2007), fig. 161; Warburg Institute Archive, London
mentally. Especially after the Second World War, the reconstruction Fig. 5. Large staircase of the Chteau de Chambord, ca. 1530,
within an economy plagued by shortages could justify the reduction Photo: Georg Kaufmann, Die Kunst des 16. Jahrhunderts (Berlin:
of circulation areas with new arguments, and that was reflected Propylen; special edition Frankfurt am Main: Ullstein Verlag,
in how they looked: Facing north, lit by small windows, planned 1990), fig. 373. Credit: Jean Roubier, Paris

21
 6 7

never absolute certainties. Architecture has a scientific component, ed States. In terms of size, Roths three-story multifamily residential
but beyond that it is an art, which every time, for every project, lies buildings can certainly be compared to the bourgeois villas of the
in applying findings that have been partially established to a par- late nineteenth century, but they were no longer occupied as a whole
ticular program and site. by industrialists and their servants but by one family on each floor.
A warning is appropriate here: there is no automatism in architec- This structure was a reaction not only to changes in social relation-
ture. Certain forms of access an external gallery, for example ships but also to urban-planning structures, since, at the time they
can make it easier to form communities, but that is not necessarily were built, Roths houses were located in a garden-city-like neigh-
the case. Too many other factors play a role: the gallerys width, its borhood. This type of Einspnner which came to enjoy great suc-
situation in relation to the exterior, its orientation, and the number cess, and not merely in architectural magazines, under the label Eta-
of floors. It has to be considered, along with many other aspects, genvilla (villa flat) can be said to be a special case of apartment
when deciding on an architectural structure, but that alone will not building, though one that still has a great future, since it can be built
determine the community of a complex, as is clear if we think of the on individual lots by small-scale building companies. The Spanish
social parameters. Many admirable, politically committed, and revo- architects Lus Pea Ganchegui and Juan Manuel Encio Cortzar
lutionary projects have failed because of an irresponsible policy that created a remarkable special case of the single-access-point apart-
did not care a whit who was admitted to a complex and under ment in 1958: the Vista Alegre or cheerful view apartment
what conditions. Examples of such failure are by no means rare, and tower. They wanted to retain as much as possible of the small, tree-
the world of architecture certainly does not lack polemicists who covered park that was the buildings site, so they stacked the apart-
would like to make their name by wittily dismissing such models. As ments to form a slender tower.
scholars, we are more cautious here. The point is to show the possi-
bilities, not to comment ironically on them. That new challenges, Putting the principle of a space-saving construction above all other
such as barrier-free construction, might lead as has, not without parameters, they decided to place three triplex units one above the
reason, been speculated to further atrophying of the stairs and other. On the first level of each apartment is a living room, on the
corridors in buildings can only be avoided with creative solutions second a bedroom, and on the third the ancillary rooms. To empha-
that prove the contrary.7 size even more terraced effect, they staggered the living spaces by
half a floor, as is evident from a view of the tower, translating the
Einspnner structure of the house into a graphic form.8 It is, perhaps, no coin-
In Austria, at least, an Einspnner is a type of coffee, consisting of a cidence that the apartment with one unit per floor is currently being
Verlngerter a coffee made with additional water, known as a reinvented in Switzerland and being made a touch more extravagant
caff lungo in Italian and a caf allong in French topped with by all sorts of ingenious details. The loft apartments of Buchner und
whipped cream and served in a cup rather than a glass. This has Brndler in Basel have, after Roths precursor of the 1930s, returned
nothing to do with residential architecture, however, which also has to the closed urban ground plan. They inserted precisely into a vacant
Zweispnner, Dreispnner, and Mehrspnner, which refers to build- space in the existing perimeter block development a six-story apart-
ings where two, three, or more units are accessed from a single stair- ment building, which clearly looms above the adjacent properties.
well. What the joys of coffee do, however, share with these types of Whereas Roth placed his stairwell in a corner, so that it can receive
access is an extravagant note: the Einspnner, in which each apart- direct light, Buchner und Brndler dispensed with this arrangement,
ment occupies an entire floor, is the deluxe version of the residential because of the site of their building, placing the stairwell instead in
building, if you will. The Swiss architect Alfred Roth employed this the core of the building. The apartments wind around this stabilizing
type for a multifamily apartment house in Zurich in 1936, and in pole; the floor plans are open; and the house opens up onto the street
doing so precisely defined its possibilities. In the mid-1930s he was and the rear courtyard through large windows between the two side
designing what is now known as an urban villa. It has little in walls. The Spartan look of the interior presumes an urbane audience
common with the late-nineteenth-century villa or with the ur-villas with similar architectural tastes. The stairwell has lost its overriding
Palladio and their descendents in the United Kingdom and the Unit- significance; it is needed when the elevator fails and, of course, as

22
Erschlieung Wege bewohnen von Leitern, Spnnern und Laubengngen
 8 9 10

an escape route in case of fire. The stairwell is no longer intended as on a central plan. The apartment building at Parral 67 by Jacobo
a place to meet others. Well-situated urban dwellers celebrate their Micha Mizrahi, in the urban context of Mexico City, consists of
apartments as the focus of the lives with lifestyle possessions, but two symmetrical volumes separated by a courtyard in the center.
they are neither dependent on this place nor members of a tenement The four-story building is accessed by a light metal stair construc-
house community whose fates are linked. tion placed in this courtyard. The result is a variant on the type
based on two units per floor, which, because the platforms that pro-
Building Community: Multiunit Floors and Courtyards vide access to the apartments are very wide, is more like the cou-
The properties described above are solitary objects, so to speak, not pling of two volumes in which each of the units occupies an entire
only in the architectural sense, since they are based on an open plan, floor. The charm of this courtyard derives from its apt scale of
but also in a metaphorical sense, since they are singular cells in a row. proximity and distance, of depth and height. Nor should one forget
The stacked apartments are separated; every floor is ready for one that it both thrives on the intense solar radiation of the Mexican
apartment; a great deal of individuality is their trademark. The com- metropolis and reacts to it. The dimensions of such a courtyard can
munal aspect is limited. The common spaces are reduced to a calcu- certainly not be transferred to completely different latitudes (and
lated minimum. The precisely arranged residential building on Susen- altitudes). This courtyard needs this distance: if it were built wider,
bergstrasse in Zurich by Gigon / Guyer features aspects with Roths it would lose its tension; if it were narrower, it would result in an
type as well as others with that of Buchner und Brndler. Their hous- unpleasant proximity. Comparing this solution to the lofts in Ba-
ing complex consists of three four-story cuboids, which are connected sel by Buchner und Brndler, which respond to a similar urban
below ground by a parking garage and on ground level by a plaza structure, the fundamental differences become evident and the value
and paths. As in Buchner und Brndlers building, the parking garage of typological thinking and planning obvious. Access via court-
is accessed by elevator directly from the individual apartments, with yards, which can be partially covered or entirely open, designed as
no detour. This strict anonymity is contrasted with the carefully a plaza or as a path, is one possible approach to viewing access as a
worked-out system of paths that brackets the buildings on the ground communicative whole.
floor and offers a picture of a functioning residential community.

This approach to forming an ensemble of solitary objects is taken

further in the Erlimatt/Obergeri housing complex by Dettli Nuss-
baumer. These are larger properties, which taken together form
something like a village. With their large, low gable roofs, they allude
to traditional architectural forms and have a certain retro char-
acter. They inevitably recall the 1970s, when architects responded
to the urbanization of rural areas with such typologies. Large glass
surfaces, wonderful terraces and loggias, and slightly staggered floors
not only create a diversity of life indoors but also subtly adapt to the Fig. 6. Lus Pea Ganchegui and Juan Manuel Encio Cortzar, Vista
terrain, which slopes slightly down to the Lake geri. Morger/Degelo Alegre tower apartments, 1958. Photo: Carlos Flores and Xavier
play perfectly not only with the historical narrative levels but also Gell, Arquitectura de Espaa / Architecture of Spain, 19291996
with the repertoire of High Modernism. They provide access to the (Barcelona: Fundacin Caja de Arquitectos, 1996), 270.
two apartments on each floor via small courtyards. The courtyards, Fig. 7. Buchner Brndler, Loft house on Colmarerstrasse, Basel. Photo:
which are more than simply atriums, also make it possible to light Ruedi Walti, Basel
and ventilate the very deep, almost square buildings very well on all Fig. 8. Susenbergstrasse housing colony, Zurich. Photo: Heinrich
sides. It seems only logical that, as urban sprawl continues, such ap- Helfenstein, Zurich
proaches are being used to augment the modernist repertoire. Figs. 9, 10. Dettli Nussbaumer, Erlimatt housing colony, Obergeri.
Access via a courtyard is not a feature exclusive to properties based Photo: Hannes Henz, Zurich

23
 11 12

This kind of access creates wide spaces, which, however, require a three volumes of three floors arranged diagonally to one another, he
generous scale as well as room, and hence they are not necessarily the placed two trapezoidal frames, from which three units on each
best solution, especially in urban locations. The necessity to provide floor are accessed. The spaciousness of these planes provides dis-
access to several units on each floor is as old as urban housing itself. tance, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, enough room for the
The smallest and thus most intimate way of forming groups is to pro- residents to make these outdoor areas as their own.
vide access to two units on each floor. The designs of this dual type
can vary tremendously, as we will demonstrate here with just a few More Horses Pulling the Plow
examples. The multistory apartments of the Onkel Toms Htte (Un- The types of access and circulation discussed thus far still offer rela-
cle Toms cabin) forest housing colony by Bruno Taut, Hugo Hring, tively modest advantages in terms of economic efficiency. The trend
and Otto R. Salvisberg, dating from the mid-1920s onward, demon- to having not just two or three but rather four, five, or more apart-
strate the quality of this type of access. It is very economical, without ments accessed from each level has resulted in its own economy of
placing too much emphasis on that; it provides a unit opposite on pleasure of design: the more units that can be accessed from one lev-
every level, and hence a kind of natural neighbor. The three stories el, the better the ratio of net to gross floor space in the building. Not
of many of the buildings in this colony thus unite six parts into one infrequently, the result is an almost picturesque aesthetic of the floor
group by means of a single entryway. plans, as Hans Scharouns Romeo and Julia (Juliet) buildings in Stutt-
The puritanical severity we find in this housing tract is not, however, gart confirm. In the Romeo high-rise, an L-shaped corridor provides
inherent to the type. The architects Duinker & van der Torre have access to no fewer than six units. Because the possibilities for floor
interpreted this two-unit-per-floor type in a very different way and plans based on rectangles are quickly exhausted, organic forms are
thus demonstrated the range of this approach. With their Uithoorn often brought into play cloverleaf buildings like mile Aillauds
housing complex, they succeeded in conveying a certain sense of spa- residential building in La Dfense (1975) or organic, expressive
tial luxury for example, by means of the breathing space in the ones like Scharouns. Despite this attractive organic aesthetic, such
hall on the third floor. Martin Sphler, David Munz, and Bruno Senn buildings cannot help but offer living conditions that tend to ano-
deliberately placed pairs of facing units that is, the dialogue of nymity, such as often poorly lit corridors.
neighbors within the overall architectonic form in a way that cre- The isolation of the residents in a ten-story building may have its
ates a tension. This multistory building thus unites an urban dimen- charms under certain circumstances. Everything we know about resi-
sion with an almost villagelike ensemble of small parts. Because the dential architecture today suggests that such forms contribute sig-
apartments are accessed via terracelike open spaces, however, this nificantly to making people feel alone. The hotel-like character that
project also introduces a certain distance. such properties have under the best circumstances is, as we have not-
Whereas in the housing colony in the Berlin forest the pairs of units ed, not without its charms, leaving aside the question whether that
are very close together, Sphler & Co. sweep air across the platforms should be a goal of residential architecture. Such extreme forms,
and thus relativize any possible cramped effect within the considera- which have emphatically formalist qualities, have hardly been used at
ble dimensions of this building. Francis Solers urban interpretation all in recent years. Because the pressure to build cost-effectively has
of this type takes it a step further. He shows its limits but in doing so not diminished, however, there are interesting examples that seek out
also his extraordinary creativity. As in our Zurich example, the units acceptable compromises between purely economic considerations
in Solers apartment building, located not far from the Bibliothque and a reasonable neighborliness. For their residential high-rise in
Nationale de France, are also accessed via a platform. By docking Amsterdam in 1998, Duinker and van der Torre created an attractive
pairs of apartments, he doubles the number of units that can be ac- type featuring a kind of access loggia. It has three units per floor, in
cessed via these decks. Soler thus creates a pseudo four-units-per- a form not unlike Scharouns Julia high-rise, and the balconies of the
floor model, which also has disadvantages. Whereas the Swiss exam- apartments, all of which face south, rise up into the surroundings at
ple has units that receive light from two sides, Soler cannot achieve acute angles. In his housing complex in Berlins Hansaviertel in
this. douard Franois has demonstrated the possibility of providing 195557, Aalvar Alto also tackled the issue of providing access to as
access via external platforms that also serve as terraces. Between many apartments as possible by means of a horizontal, plazalike

24
Erschlieung Wege bewohnen von Leitern, Spnnern und Laubengngen
 13 14 15

space. The corridor is widened to become a real hall. With five units circulate large numbers of people along protected paths. The Colos-
per floor accessed via an open colonnade, it resembles a covered pi- seum in Rome, which has served as the model for the design and
azza. Such access halls have a lot of potential, especially in an urban construction of large sports stadiums right up to the present, is men-
context. Uwe Schrders building at the Cllenhof in Bonn plays with tioned here as one representative of a whole class of architectural
this theme on a smaller scale, and no longer as drily organized but tasks. In his Trattato di architettura, Antonio Averlino better
instead featuring many distinct small parts. He joined the access known by his pseudonym, Filarete dreamt up types of buildings
paths crosswise across an open courtyard, leading through a col- for his ideal city, Sforzinda, such as the multistory House of Vice and
umned portico and then separating out the paths to the individual Virtue, whose arcades should probably be read as galleries. Filarete
apartments via a tall stairwell. probably had knowledge of the design of Oriental hospitals, which
had been passed on by the Knights Hospitaller in Rhodes, for exam-
Excursus: External Galleries ple. The gallery is common as a form of access for hospitals and
The external gallery has been subject to quite antithetical assessments poorhouses in particular. One of the finest examples of such medieval
in discussions of residential architecture. Despite objectively evident institutions is the Htel-Dieu in Beaune, which had been founded by
disadvantages, this type has repeatedly been promoted, especially by the famous Chancellor Nicolas Rolin. It was built between 1443 and
those seeking to reform residential architecture, as a tried-and-tested 1451 based on plans by Jean Rateau and consists of three wings
method to solve the problems of public housing. Its disadvantages, as around an interior courtyard. The large hall in the southern wing was
described in the literature, have led to its rejection in many quarters used both to care for the sick and for religious services. The northern
and for long periods. There have been phases in the history of resi- wing (see picture) has a gallery, which on the upper floor served as a
dential architecture when it was scarcely employed at all and others covered corridor providing access to the single rooms of the wealthy
in which it seemed to have been rescued from oblivion, as it were, by patients, which were located here, while the Chambres des pauvres
ideologically colored arguments. Our presentation of the external were in the southern wing.
gallery seeks first and foremost to make distinctions and to examine
critically both poles of this debate. The external gallery is not as bad
as some theorists of residential architecture assert, but neither is an
instrument to solve societys problems. On the contrary, if an archi-
tectural element is it forced to do the latter, the result can only be
disappointment. This section should thus be understood as a double
disappointment. Behind its focus on the external gallery stands a
search for ways to design multistory residential buildings as attrac-
tive social frameworks. Of all the corridor systems for providing ac-
cess to separate units, galleries appear to offer the greatest potential
for a social dimension. All of the other systems in which many units
are accessed from a single point lack its breadth and openness and
that is all the more true of designs with just one or two units per Fig. 11. Bruno Taut, Hugo Hring, and Otto R. Salvisberg, Onkel
floor. The stairwells they necessitate often become unlit dark zones Toms Htte housing colony
and a source of anxiety within the housing complex. Hence this sec- Fig. 12. Francis Soler, Durkheim housing complex, Paris. Photo:
tion will examine a wide variety of systems of access via a gallery not Nicolas Borel, Paris
only from aesthetic points of view but also with an eye to their ef- Fig. 13. Hans Scharoun, Romeo and Julia, Stuttgart
fectiveness as a place of social interaction. The gallery is a very eco- Fig. 14. Aalvar Alto, residential complex, Hansaviertel, Berlin,
nomical system but also a very old system of access and circulation, 195557
whose use has by no means been restricted to residential architecture Fig. 15. Uwe Schrder, Am Cllenhof apartment building, Bonn.
but already in antiquity was employed whenever it was necessary to Photo: Peter Oszwald, Bonn

25
Access + Vertical Point Access

Access: Interior space: Exterior space: Morphology:

Entrance hall connects the street side with With the exception of the ground floor, each Balconies attached to oriel elements and The volume aligns seamlessly with the row
the courtyard side: vertical point access, of the apartments occupies an entire floor. recessed into the volume, roof terrace, pri- of buildings, which is slightly recessed from
one unit per floor; inside stairwell; area A compact, vertical access core, shifted vate gardens on the ground floor (front gar- the street, and its solid walls establish a
around the elevator provides direct access from the axial center of the ground plan, den), and common area in the courtyard. clearly defined zone for the front garden as
to the apartments; stairwell lit by skylight. houses the stairwell, the wet cells, and the well as a closed-off courtyard space. The all-
freight elevator. Because of this central ac- glass facades facing the street and the
cess, each floor consists of a single, con- courtyard have parapet walls of green glass
tinuous large room, which can be partitioned that articulates the floors horizontally. Bay-
with flexible elements to suit individual re- window-like projections enable residents to
quirements. Full-height windows along the step into the space above the street and
facades, both toward the street and the also create a volume with distant panorama-
courtyard, create an open, urban atmos- like views.
phere with the characteristics of a loft.

Schnitt M 1_500

Sample apartment, 1:200 Cross sections

Top floor
herausgelste
Plan of site, 1:1,000 Wohnung M 1_200 Standard floor
Ground floor
1:500

Dachgeschoss M 1_500

Regelgeschoss M 1_500

30
Erdgeschoss M 1_500
Lageplan M 1_1000
Loft Building, Colmarerstrasse, Basel Buchner Brndler Architekten

Building volumes: Site: Apartments:

Perimeter block construction; front garden Colmarerstrasse 64, 4055 Basel, 7 units
and courtyard areas; northsouth orienta- Switzerland Key: 5 units of 160 sq m, 2 units of 60 sq m
tion; 6 floors above ground and 1 below
ground; first floor raised above ground level; Client: Additional features:
depth: 11 m. Buchner Brndler AG Architekten BSA None
Completed: 2002
Schema Erschliessung M 1_1000

31
 Access + Vertical Point Access

Access: Interior space: Exterior space: Morphology:

Access patio at the center of the tower; Tower buildings are inserted into the terrain Balconies / terraces run continuously around In contrast to the massive perforated fa-
point access, two units per floor; stairwell in such a way that horizontal and vertical the building; in the corners, the outdoor cade of exposed concrete facing the court-
located on the perimeter; each apartment shifts provide optimal views out of the spaces extend into the depth of the build- yards, the floor-to-ceiling windows on all
has its own entrance facing the courtyard. apartments into the geri Valley landscape. ing; private gardens on the ground floor. sides and glass parapet elements deter-
The individual units have, in keeping with mine the outward appearance. The split-
the slightly sloping terrain, a split-level ef- level effect of living and sleeping areas is
fect between the living and sleeping areas. brought out by the horizontally articulated
After passing through the entry, a continu- facade and, on the top floor, by a slightly
um develops from the living room, dining sloping, asymmetrical roof.
room, and the kitchen, which features a
view of the lake, that contrasts with the
cell-like organization of the sleeping area
around a space with plank floors. The ter-
races run all the way around the building in
order to provide direct access to outdoor
space from each of the rooms.
G

Sample apartment, 1:200

Plan of site, 1:2,000

32
Erlimatt Residential Building, Obergeri Dettli Nussbaumer

Building volumes: Site: Apartments:

Ensemble of 6 tower buildings with patio on Schneitstrasse, Obergeri, Switzerland 33 units of 2.5 to 8.5 rooms
the hillside, 2 floors above ground and 2 be-
low, basement and parking garage, depth: Client: Additional features:
ca. 20 m. Werk 2 AG Common room
Completed in 2005

33
 Top floor
Ground floor
Basement

Cross sections
Longitudinal section
1:500

34
Erschlieung Spnner Wohnbebauung Erlimatt in Obergeri Dettli Nussbaumer
35
Access+ Vertical Point Access

Access: Interior space: Exterior space: Morphology:

Ground floor with passage between the This extremely deep lot is divided length- Loggias, access decks with features to en- The open view of the street makes the
street and courtyard areas. Stairs connect wise into three parallel strips. The apart- hance their attractiveness as public spaces, depth of the lot evident. On the street side,
various large access plateaus outdoors. ments are located on both sides of a kind of roof terraces. two tall building volumes that recede be-
open passageway, which projects freely hind the line of the facade surround an
over the courtyard as an access deck on all opening into which the open access levels
floors and forms a transition between pri- have been inserted, with exterior stairs
vate and public space. The units and mai- leading from floor to floor. Full-height win-
sonettes, most of which are small, receive dows and aluminum sliding shutters stand
natural light from three or four sides and re- out against the dark clinker facade and give
late to the exterior space in different ways. it an austere order. On the courtyard side,
the structure is a free composition of stand-
ing, lying, and projecting volumes.

Wohnung
Typical apartment, 1:200

Site plan, 1:2,000

20 10 5 3 1 0 in m

36
Apartment Building, Rue de lOurcq, Paris Philippe Gazeau

Building volumes: Site: Apartments:

Perimeter block construction with rear 46, rue de lOurcq, 19th arrondissement, 26 units, 13 rooms of various sizes,
courtyard, 8 floors above and 2 below Paris, France maisonette apartments
ground for parking garage, depth up to ca.
40 m. Client: Additional features:
SA HLM Toit et joie Food services on ground floor
Completed: 1993

37
 Schnitt
20 10 5 3 1 0 in m

Geschoss_B
20 10 5 3 1 0 in m

Geschoss_A
20 10 5 3 1 0 in m

Cross sections
Level B
Level A
Ground floor
1:500

Erdgeschoss
20 10 5 3 1 0 in m

38
Erschlieung Spnner Wohnhaus Rue de lOurcq in Paris Philippe Gazeau
39
Access+ Vertical Point Access

Access: Interior space: Exterior space: Morphology:

Lobbies connect the street side to the The rational and extremely economic struc- Loggia openings cut deep into the building This I-shaped building volume is staggered,
courtyard side; vertical point access, four ture of this vertical-point-access building volume from both sides and provide natural rising from eight to ten floors, and visually
units per floor; stairwell located in the inte- with four units per floor is developed along light for the stairwell; narrow balustrade connects with the neighboring library to
rior; natural light in the stairwells through its longitudinal axis. All of the vertical supply space running around the building in the form an ensemble. The building has win-
the windows of the loggia openings. lines and the main load-bearing elements form of a French balcony; communal roof dows on all sides and has deep cuts, which
are bundled on that axis, so that the only terrace. divides the volume into three zones. The
supporting structures required on the fa- slightly projecting ceilings of each floor are
cades are rows of slender supports. Most designed as French balconies. The most
of the apartments, with the exception of striking detail of this austerely structured
the corner units and the large apartments, building is its silk-screen windows, which
are oriented to just one side, as a result of are intended to serve as privacy screens for
the structure. The living and sleeping spaces residents.
are arranged along a corridor on the longitu-
dinal axis. Two of the units on each floor
have an additional living space in the form of
a deep loggia exterior space that supple-
ments the French balconies.

Typical apartment, 1:200

Site plan, 1:5,000

M 1:5000

40
Durkheim Residential Complex, Paris Francis Soler

Building volumes: Site: Apartments:

Angled slab of a perimeter block construc- ZAC de Tolbiac, rue Emile Durkheim, 13th 94 units
tion with southwestnortheast orientation, arrondissement, Paris, France
staggered up to 10 floors with 3 under- Additional features:
ground levels with parking garage, depth: Client: Nursery, stores, and food services on
15 m. Rgie Immobilire de la Ville de Paris ground floor
Completed: 1997

41
 Regelgeschoss 20 10 5 3 1 0 in m

Standard floor
Ground floor
1:500

Erdgeschoss 20 10 5 3 1 0 in m

42
Erschlieung Spnner Wohnbebauung Durkheim in Paris Francis Soler
9. Obergeschoss 20 10 5 3 1 0 in m

Cross sections

Tenth floor
Ninth floor
1:500

8. Obergeschoss 20 10 5 3 1 0 in m

43
 Access+ Vertical Point Access

Access: Interior space: Exterior space: Morphology:

Entrance hall on ground floor; parking on The apartments are divided into day and Loggia, adjacent to the living room, kitchen, This pair of high-rises, sharing a continuous
bottom six floors; vertical point access, five night areas. The generous living/dining room and bedroom lobby floor with communal base on the lower six floors, is situated as a
units per floor; interior stairwell; lobby on is except in the middle apartmentlocat- outdoor space. landmark on the edge of the water in the
seventh floor with additional functions. ed at the corner of the building and faces center of Rotterdam. The massiveness of
two sides. This maximizing of living space the slightly terraced, stone volumes of the
contrasts with the minimizing of the floor black-stained concrete elements is coun-
area of the inner rooms that serve it. Ac- tered by the glass based on the ground
cess to the apartments is via a combination floor. An alternation of single-wing windows
of corridors and halls. The loggia areas line and bandlike openings of the panorama
the day and night areas. windows and loggias lend rhythm to the
vertically stacked floors.

Wiel Arts, Tower Hoge Heren Rotterdam,

M 1:200, Freie Wohnung

Typical apartment, 1:200

Site plan, 1:5,000

44
Wiel Arets Lageplan M 1:5000 Tower Heren Rotterdam
Hoge Heren Residential High-Rise, Rotterdam Wiel Arets

Building volumes: Site: Apartments:

Double high-rise, 29 floors with connecting Gedempte Zalmhaven, 3011 BT Rotterdam, 285 units, 5 penthouses
six-story base; first floor raised above Netherlands
ground level; depth: ca. 30 m. Additional features:
Client: Caf, swimming pool with sauna and
ABP, Vesteda fitness center
Completed: 2001
Wiel Arts, Tower Hoge Heren Rotterdam, M 1:200, Schema Erschliessung + Freie Flchen

45
 Wiel Arts, Tower Hoge Heren Rotterdam, M 1:500, GR Appartments
20 10 5 3 1 0

20 10 5 3 1 0
Wiel Arts, Tower Hoge Heren Rotterdam, M 1:500, GR Lobby

Floor plan of an apartment

Floor plan of lobby
Floor plan of entrance
1:500

20 10 5 3 10

46
Erschlieung Spnner Wohnhochhaus Hoge Heren in Rotterdam Wiel Arets
Wiel Arts, Tower Hoge Heren Rotterdam, M 1:500, GR Entree
Cross section, 1:500

20 10 5 3 1 0
Wiel Arets, Schnitt, M 1_500

47
Access+ Vertical Point Access

Access: Interior space: Exterior space: Morphology:

Access hall with freely developed stairs, lo- All of the units are arranged diagonally and Continuous balconies around the volume; in The irregular pentagonal geometry of the
cated in the interior; hall lit by skylights. The have both closed rooms and open living ar- front of the living rooms they project out building derived from the form of the lot in
arrangement of the stairs gives the building eas. Interestingly, the glazed entrance es- like bays; sun shading with metal curtain. order to optimize its use. In contrast to the
a strong identity in the interior. tablishes a connection between the apart- sculpturally shaped interior, the translucent
ment and the stately stairwell, and the web of chrome-nickel steel determines the
adjacent placement of the open kitchen outward appearance of the building with its
makes it a kind of hinge between the en- curving, baylike balconies.
trance and the living room.

Typical apartment, 1:200

Site plan, 1:5,000

48
Rondo Apartment Building, Zurich Graber Pulver

Building volumes: Site: Apartments:

Solitary tower, 5 floors above ground and 1 Zurich, Switzerland 22 units of various sizes
below with a parking garage; depth: up to
35 m. Client: Additional features:
Rondo-Bau GmbH, Kloten None
Completed: 2007

49
 Cross sections
Top floor
Standard floor
Ground floor
1:500

Erdgeschoss 20 10 5 3 1 0 in m Regelgeschoss 20 10 5 3 1 0 in m

50
Erschlieung Spnner Wohnhaus Rondo in Zrich Graber Pulver
Obergeschoss 20 10 5 3 1 0 in m

51