Situation The building is located in Immenhausen, a small village in Southern Germany on a high plateau with views of the Swabian Alb.
The motivation for the design was the changed living situation of the clients:As they were reaching the last third of their lives and the children moved out, an artist and an architect remained, looking for a living and working space in which they would be able to actively grow old.
They share a passion for simplicity. So the idea was to selectively store all their basic commodities and reduce the previous possessions by 1/3. The living spaces should provide an easy to modify and generous space. The materials used should be natural and easy to recycle;the energy requirement of the building should be optimised.
Concept The north of the building comprises a foyer, staircase, management utilities and a kitchen in a compact 13m long corridor on the ground floor. A similar corridor is placed above including storage, toilet, shower, sauna and dressing facilities.
A continuous open space opens towards the south of the building on each floor. Spaces can be separated through sliding walls. Thus, a guestroom can be separated from the living and dining areaon the ground floor and a bedroom from the working and studio area on the upper floor.
Envelope The northern facade, which hides the storage facilities, is completely closed.
Similarly, the east and west facadesare closed but are intersected by a vertical band with glazed doors. The doors provide light to the corridor and the band continues the corridor through the house and to the outside.
The large studio-like spaces in the south are glazed over the entire height of the building. Fixed-glazed parts are clamped onto the supporting pillars and the middle field (approx. 3.20m x 2.40 m) can be opened entirely though a sliding door, thereby creating the impression to eat outdoors or work in the garden with views of the Swabian Alb.
Construction There is no basement. The closed componentshave been mounted onto the bottom plate as a pre-fabricated timber construction and have been filled with cellulose insulation. The flat roof is a green roof. The southern facadehas been pre-fabricated as a frame structure. Agalvanized steel construction forms a small balcony, whichencloses the rolling blinds and carries the fixed sunblind made of translucent twin wall sheets.
Materials All visible wood parts are silver fir in various surface finishes. The rear-ventilatedcladding is made of 6m long, untreated, raw-finish planks in differing widths. They will wear and become grey over time. Therefore, the facadeincorporates a theme of the surrounding farms and barns. The irregular arrangement of the planks has been an artistic idea of the client and shows encoded for three letters the text of a Japanese Zen meditation.
Door and window elements as well as the construction of the southern facing are made of bonded silver fir and are glazed in the interior. Triple glazing suitable for passive houses was used for all elements apart from the sliding doors, which are double glazed because of their weight.
The floor is made of a visible screedwith panel heating. The screed was sanded and varnished. The lightly coloured walls and ceiling contrast the vivid surface of the screed. The walls of the sanitary facilities have been coated with a waterprooflime-marble plastering.
Technology The strict zoning and orientation of the building as well as good insulation minimise the energy required for heating. Therefore, only a small wood pellet tank is needed for water heating. The pellets are stored in an underground tank.
All water pipes are combined and only run through the northern part of the northern zone of the house. Artificial ventilation was not installed on purpose to continue the concept of simplicity into the technology.
The electrical engineering was conducted conventionally. All switches are placed in custom-made aluminium tracks at the passageways between the northern and the southern zone. In the southern zone the tracks are also used as skirting with integrated sockets.
Outdoor area The property is defined by an overgrown pergola in the east, which is constructedin the same way as the balcony. The pergola is used as a carport, trellis and outside storage.
