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Architects: Beer Architektur Städtebau
- Area: 440 m²
- Year: 2010
- Photographs: Daniel Mosch
Text description provided by the architects. In terms of volume and height, the single-family home blends into the surroundings of the garden suburb of Harlaching with its well-spaced residential properties. The eave heights of the neighbouring buildings are adopted in the protruding upper floor; the width of the facade is stepped back accordingly. The house looks out on to the impressively green areas of the estate, the Athener Platz to the north and the verdant planted gardens to the south. Viewed from the neighbouring, very different properties to the east and west, the house appears rather solid, but is nevertheless sculptured to match the scale of these buildings. Due to the spatial concept of linked rooms and terraces, a generous contiguous space, incorporating indoor and outdoor areas, has been created making good use of the relatively small plot measuring around 650sqm.
The basement of the building includes a garage, utility rooms and two guest apartments. The ground floor accommodates a kitchen with a small table, a living room with an open dining area and a library with an open fireplace. The family’s more private rooms, a bedroom with a walk-in-wardrobe, a bathroom with a sauna and a small wellness area, and an office are located on the first floor.
The second floor is taken up by a spacious music room reaching from the front to the back of the house with a south-facing terrace; it is structured with a tiered skylight and floor-to-ceiling shelving for archiving sheet music. This room has been designed to meet specific criteria in terms of acoustics. All rooms have an outwards orientation to take in their particular views. All of the light and inviting interior rooms, at every level, enjoy the benefit of the parklike surroundings. Controlled ventilation, wall and underfloor heating systems, as well as acoustic features in most rooms contribute towards a pleasant and comfortable living environment.
The building has been designed as a composition of cubes which, in terms of scale, are derived from the surroundings. Embedded in the lustrous green of the gardens and surrounded by a framework of hedges, the house towers above the greenery like a stone fortress; however, when standing back, it appears to open up to its surroundings in an almost inviting manner. The building and the ground floor level, including all interior and exterior areas, have been conceived in stone. Maggia Gneiss from the Maggia Valley in Switzerland was selected as the material for these floor coverings and the facade. The house was developed as a concrete construction with a cladding of natural stone on all fascias and soffits. For all vertical surfaces, exterior facades and bathroom interiors, the stone has been cut against the grain and has a striped appearance. All horizontal surfaces, such as the floor covering of the ground floor level, soffits in the facade and window sills, have been cut against the grain and have a cloudlike texture. Continuous layers of stone running around the entire building, combed corner details, minimised horizontal and vertical joints, soffits with solid slabs reflect the skill in the use of natural stone as a construction material. The interior walls have been fitted out with plain white panels. Cherry wood was chosen for the floor coverings on the upper storeys, the colouring and richness of its structure complementing the Maggia stone in a delightful way.
