Typology+ Access


Preface

Page
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

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


Inhabiting NatureOn the Value of Outdoor Spaces in Multistory Apartment Buildings

Page
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


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

Page
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. []

[W]hen you build a house, the client is the first occupant; perhaps
twenty years later other people will live in it. When I design a house
today, I start out from the rooms, without defining them more closely; they can be used in different ways, and what the occupants make
of them determines what they are. Living in the rooms is part of architecture.1

Michael Alder

The residential building viewed as a suit tailored to the subjective

desires of the occupants is a relatively recent phenomenon in the history of housing. The dream house, seen as the subconscious rendered in stone, has become the psychological profile of the clients
individuality. This concept was supported by the state subsidy of
home ownership, which flourished in the second half of the twentieth
century. It made the link between property and individuality a universal. 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, housing 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 phenomenon, 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 recently 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 computer 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 development of the critical and scholarly objectivity with which postmodernism 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 morphological 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

over decades has been composted. In the journal trans, the central
theoretical organ of the ETH Zrich (Eidgenssische Technische
Hochschule, or Swiss Federal Institute of Technology), Nicola Braghieri went further: Over the last fifty years, typology has been a kind
of religion in architectural theory. 5 With a typology as creed, the
cornerstone was set for an enlightened discourse. Beyond such questions of faith, however, our title, Typology+, is intended to address
central problems of multistory residential buildings. For that reason,
the concept of type is defined only vaguely here. Archetype, prototype, type what interests us is the oscillation of the term, not its
rigid constriction.
In preparation for this book, hundreds of contemporary residential
buildings were examined and their particular qualities studied and
categorized. Four aspects served as leitmotifs in that process: In the
first category, we included the path to the house and the forms of internal circulation have been summed up in typological groups. The
systems of access and circulation structure a residence and thus shape
quite fundamentally how residents live together. Access is also the
thread that links the building to the networks of the city. The systems
of communication are therefore one of the essential qualities of residential architecture. Another essential quality is its outdoor spaces.
They have long since become the most important asset in the quality
of housing in conurbations. The objective of this chapter is to demonstrate the distinct modes of outdoor spaces, as embodied in loggias,
roof terraces, and balconies. We have deliberately focused on the private outdoor space assigned to an apartment, not the public space.
The third factor in this typological presentation is the living spaces
themselves. This book hopes to show that they have been subject to a
striking transformation in recent decades. On the one hand, the diversity of types has increased; on the other, they are used quite differently as a result of social change keyword: service economy and
the increased overlapping of the workplace and the home. Living in
the rooms is part of architecture, wrote Michael Alder. The individuality of housing is echoed in this. It demonstrates most clearly, perhaps, how typological thinking influences things. It does not by any
means lead to monotony; on the contrary, it opens up a horizon of
diversity.
The fourth and final category is the design of the building volume.
This chapter is a synthesis of the earlier ones and shapes their parts
into a whole. A residential building speaks to its surroundings

16

Typologie+ Einleitung

through its facade; the building becomes part of the city that it shapes
at the same time. The examples chosen for this chapter are intended
to explore in particular the possibilities that contemporary materials
and techniques offer to formulate the urban-planning context. If residential buildings can be said to form a citys body, then their facades
can be called its smiling face.
It was Rafael Moneo who recognized the formulation of new types as
a creative process and hence identified the continuous evolution in
typology: When a new type emerges when an architect is able to
describe a new set of formal relations which generates a new group
of buildings or elements then that architects contribution has
reached the level of generality and anonymity that characterizes architecture as a discipline.6
For Moneo, a type in architecture has an identifiable author, a specific architect who develops it by creating a new principle of formal relationships, as Moneo describes it, and hence strives for an
anonymity in the result that constitutes the essence of architecture.
At the same time, this anonymity makes it possible for the type to
become the basis for concrete examples by other authors. Therein
lies the central aspect of a genuine type: it possesses, despite its
identifiable inventor, such a degree of universality and anonymity
that it can be used by others by the discipline in general. The
edifice of architecture would thus be the collection of architectural
types and parts of buildings whose stock can be fundamentally expanded.
Quatremre de Quincy, the inventor of the modern concept of type,
also pointed to a developmental aspect: In every country, the orderly art of building was born from a pre-existing seed. Everything
must have an antecedent, nothing whatsoever comes from nothing,
and this cannot but apply to all human inventions. We observe also
how all inventions, in spite of subsequent changes, have conserved
their elementary principle in a manner that is always visible, and always evident to feeling and reason. This elementary principle is like
a sort of nucleus around which are assembled, and with which are
consequently coordinated, all the developments and the variations of
form to which the object was susceptible. Thus did a thousand of all
sorts reach us; and in order to understand their reasons, one of the
principal occupations of science and philosophy is to search for their
origin and primitive cause. This is what ought to be called type in
architecture as in every other area of human invention and institution.7 The French architectural theorist elegantly navigates around

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 variance and constancy of the type, which reconciles its ability to transform and renew with its seemingly antithetical persistent and unchanging 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 residential 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 typologies 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 intended 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
are woven into them, of the systems of access and circulation, and of
the spatial configurations of the apartments themselves are the typological categories according to which we have examined the architecture of multistory residential buildings; they are not exhaustive but,
we hope, they offer a useful tool for the craft of residential architecture.

Notes
Quoted in Martin Steinmann, Das Haus ist meine Welt: Zum architektonischen Denken von Michael Alder, werk, bauen und
wohnen 6 (2001): 3849, esp. 42.
2 Sabine Pollak, Maja Lorbek, and Robert Temel, Wohnen im
Typus, Architektur & Bauforum 7 (2008): 12.
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 Quatremre 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.
1

17

BKK-3, Miss Sargfabrik

Schema
M 1:1000

de Architekten Cie, The Whale

Schema M1:1000

Ferrater_schema, M 1:1000

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

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

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
am the LORD God of Abraham thy father ...

Jacobs dream, Genesis 28:1213

Before the profane words access and circulation entered the vocabulary of architects, stairs, stairwells, lobbies, and galleries were
spaces that also symbolized stepping over boundaries and reaching
higher levels. It might seem presumptuous, and meaningless as well,
to call to mind the religious, spiritual, and even occult qualities of
steps and ladders. For William Blake, one of the great mystics in the
history of art, Jacobs Ladder, which connected the worldly to the
heavenly, was closed related to the anatomy of the human ear, whose
auditory canal he described as an endlessly twisting spiral ascent to
the Heaven of Heavens.1 He saw the opening of the inner ear in turn
as the precondition for making contact with higher worlds.
The stairway in its most original form: chopped out of a single
tree trunk symbolizes the connection of heaven and earth in yet
another way. Its zigzag line is found as a symbol both in primitive
cultures and in Neolithic Bandkeramik. This line is an emblem for
lightning, which connects heaven and earth in a violent discharge.
The violence it contains has always been a sign of (the anger of)
God, and it is an attribute of the supreme divinity: Zeus/Jupiter
among the Greeks and Romans and Donar/Thor among the Germanic gods. The destructive lightning is followed by redemptive/
fertile rain, with the rainbow as the sign of the renewed covenant
between God and man.
The kivas of the Hopi Indians have such steps carved from a single
tree, leading to the communal rooms for religious ceremonies. The
important art and cultural historian Aby Warburg referred to these
connections and demonstrated them with material he had collected
on his trip to Hopi reservations in the late nineteenth century. The
exceptional significance that stairwells had is also evident from the
great castles from the Gothic era by way of the Baroque to the architecture of the museums, theaters, and opera houses with which
the bourgeoisie asserted its rise. The splendid architecture of the
Chteau de Chambord is organized around its grand staircase. The
double-helix staircase is emphasized in the view from outside by
means of an imaginative lantern structure on the roof terrace. We
need only allude to magnificent Baroque stairs, like those of Wrzburg Castle. Such allusions may seem out of place in the context of
a typological depiction of forms of access in modern architecture.
But can these aspects of stairs and stairwells simply be brushed
aside? For reasons of cost savings, the paths to apartments in a
residential building are kept as short as possible, until nothing is

20

left but a functional remnant that compels users to get through this
space as quickly as possible. But hasnt the elimination of everything
that goes beyond the purely physical overcoming of a difference in
height led to us experiencing a continuous impoverishment of these
communicative spaces? Within the context of multi-story residential construction, this means that the residents outdoors i nteraction
areas are, as a rule, restricted entirely to streets, walkways, and
parking places. In the interiors of buildings, intera ction areas
among apartments are likewise generally reduced to the minimum
degree necessary, in stairwells and corridors. Floor space is typically dedicated to achieve a maximum of pure dwelling-unit floor
space. 2
Sociologists recognized this problem early on and as early as the
1960s Jane Jacobs, for example recommended spaces of access
and circulation that could serve as a place for social interaction.
The sociologizing of architecture during the decades that followed
produced an entire apparatus of theorems and criteria intended as a
way of looking exterior spaces and areas for access and circulation
in an integrated way, in the context of surroundings as well as of the
city as a whole. Scholars of (the architecture of) housing went so far
as to assign certain types of living to particular types of housing and to define not only access and circulation within an apartment building as a parameter but also how it is opened up or closed
off.3 Supposedly, such residential dwellings, with a high degree of
seclusion, naturally appeal to the introverted kind of resident. These
kinds of residents primarily consist of singles who work at home,
reserved couples without children, and retired men and women. 4
The open apartment is suited to the needs of a normal resident,
including those who are closely bound to their living area by their
dependency (for example, children), by their activities (say, housewives), or by their physical condition (such as old people). 5 Hence
senior citizens who are considering a closed type of apartment have
to be sprightly, while the elderly for whom the open type is suited
are more fragile that is, if these two quotations do not represent
a fundamental contradiction. Be that as it may, it is clear that sociology opened up a broad field for projections and attempted to
justify them scientifically. However, the dilemma goes much deeper.
The laudable effort to attribute social value to areas for access and
circulation and the planned socialization of common areas merely
scratches the surface of the problem. For we have long since internalized the idea that a stately staircase in a contemporary residential

building is a contradiction in terms. Why should a place where people are not supposed to linger be enhanced by aesthetic means? The
Enlightenment probably marks the beginning of first questioning
and then eliminating everything that does not serve a rationally defined purpose. And it is no coincidence that it was the architects and
architectural theorists of the revolutionary age who first thought
systematically about the most economical forms of access and circulation. They were presumably the first to concern themselves with
the new social conflicts conflicts that have established the rhythm
of history since the French Revolution. The structuring of contexts
becomes a crucial theme for two aspects: structures that provide
access to more than one unit per floor are considerably more costeffective. Minimizing the costs for stairwells, corridors, and elevators 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 housing 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 entirely new parameters emerged. Although housing had always been a
problem for society no matter whether in the Paleolithic era, in
ancient Rome, or in overfilled medieval cities with their alleys and
ghettos it first became an autonomous task on which people reflected systematically and developed solutions during the Industrial
Revolution, when the goal was to house the proletarian masses.
From the outset, fear of the political volatility of the masses was a
consideration in the design of apartments for workers or for families. It is no surprise, therefore, that little interest was shown and
not just for economic reasons in generous spaces for lingering
outside of the housing units. The questions what these new communities that would necessarily emerge there might look like, by what
parameters they could be defined (class, culture, nation, and so on)
did not simply parallel modern society; they shaped it quite fundamentally. Especially after the Second World War, the reconstruction
within an economy plagued by shortages could justify the reduction
of circulation areas with new arguments, and that was reflected
in how they looked: Facing north, lit by small windows, planned

with a standard rise and minimum width, under the influence of

bibles of standardization like Ernst Neuferts Bauentwurfslehre
(translated as Architects Data) they atrophied into wallflowers. 6
The difficult part is structuring the communal in residential architecture. How the residents of a housing complex people who, as
a rule, do not know one another before moving in (and when they
do, perhaps discover only later how different they are) come together, form a community, and live as individuals is something that
every generation has to invent anew. The following examples are
positive approaches influenced by this set of problems. Typological analysis offers a system that shows a planner the possibilities
a certain type of access offers, what it cannot offer, which milieus
can adapt to it, and which cannot. It offers only such possibilities,

Fig. 1. Philipp Otto Runge, Perspectival construction of a spiral

staircase. From: Alexander Roob, The Hermetic Museum: Alchemy
and Mysticism, trans. Shaun Whiteside (Cologne: Taschen, 1997),
296. Credit: Biblioteca Nazionale, Florence
Fig. 2. William Blake, Jacobs Ladder, ca. 1800. From: Alexander
Roob, The Hermetic Museum: Alchemy and Mysticism, trans.
Shaun Whiteside (Cologne: Taschen, 1997), 297.
Fig. 3. Rabbi Lw in his alchemy workshop with a spiral staircase
in the form of a human ear. Still from Paul Wegeners Der Golem,
wie er in die Welt kam (1920); stage set: Hans Poelzig. Photo:
Deutsches Filminstitut
Fig. 4. Pueblos with ladders. Photo: Aby Warburg. Credit: Max
Hollein and Pamela Kort, eds., I Like America: Fictions of the Wild
West, exh. cat., Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt (Munich: Prestel,
2007), fig. 161; Warburg Institute Archive, London
Fig. 5. Large staircase of the Chteau de Chambord, ca. 1530,
Photo: Georg Kaufmann, Die Kunst des 16. Jahrhunderts (Berlin:
Propylen; special edition Frankfurt am Main: Ullstein Verlag,
1990), fig. 373. Credit: Jean Roubier, Paris

21

never absolute certainties. Architecture has a scientific component,

but beyond that it is an art, which every time, for every project, lies
in applying findings that have been partially established to a particular program and site.
A warning is appropriate here: there is no automatism in architecture. Certain forms of access an external gallery, for example
can make it easier to form communities, but that is not necessarily
the case. Too many other factors play a role: the gallerys width, its
situation in relation to the exterior, its orientation, and the number
of floors. It has to be considered, along with many other aspects,
when deciding on an architectural structure, but that alone will not
determine the community of a complex, as is clear if we think of the
social parameters. Many admirable, politically committed, and revolutionary projects have failed because of an irresponsible policy that
did not care a whit who was admitted to a complex and under
what conditions. Examples of such failure are by no means rare, and
the world of architecture certainly does not lack polemicists who
would like to make their name by wittily dismissing such models. As
scholars, we are more cautious here. The point is to show the possibilities, not to comment ironically on them. That new challenges,
such as barrier-free construction, might lead as has, not without
reason, been speculated to further atrophying of the stairs and
corridors in buildings can only be avoided with creative solutions
that prove the contrary.7
Einspnner
In Austria, at least, an Einspnner is a type of coffee, consisting of a
Verlngerter a coffee made with additional water, known as a
caff lungo in Italian and a caf allong in French topped with
whipped cream and served in a cup rather than a glass. This has
nothing to do with residential architecture, however, which also has
Zweispnner, Dreispnner, and Mehrspnner, which refers to buildings where two, three, or more units are accessed from a single stairwell. What the joys of coffee do, however, share with these types of
access is an extravagant note: the Einspnner, in which each apartment occupies an entire floor, is the deluxe version of the residential
building, if you will. The Swiss architect Alfred Roth employed this
type for a multifamily apartment house in Zurich in 1936, and in
doing so precisely defined its possibilities. In the mid-1930s he was
designing what is now known as an urban villa. It has little in
common with the late-nineteenth-century villa or with the ur-villas
Palladio and their descendents in the United Kingdom and the Unit-

22

Erschlieung Wege bewohnen von Leitern, Spnnern und Laubengngen

ed States. In terms of size, Roths three-story multifamily residential

buildings can certainly be compared to the bourgeois villas of the
late nineteenth century, but they were no longer occupied as a whole
by industrialists and their servants but by one family on each floor.
This structure was a reaction not only to changes in social relationships but also to urban-planning structures, since, at the time they
were built, Roths houses were located in a garden-city-like neighborhood. This type of Einspnner which came to enjoy great success, and not merely in architectural magazines, under the label Etagenvilla (villa flat) can be said to be a special case of apartment
building, though one that still has a great future, since it can be built
on individual lots by small-scale building companies. The Spanish
architects Lus Pea Ganchegui and Juan Manuel Encio Cortzar
created a remarkable special case of the single-access-point apartment in 1958: the Vista Alegre or cheerful view apartment
tower. They wanted to retain as much as possible of the small, treecovered park that was the buildings site, so they stacked the apartments to form a slender tower.
Putting the principle of a space-saving construction above all other
parameters, they decided to place three triplex units one above the
other. On the first level of each apartment is a living room, on the
second a bedroom, and on the third the ancillary rooms. To emphasize even more terraced effect, they staggered the living spaces by
half a floor, as is evident from a view of the tower, translating the
structure of the house into a graphic form.8 It is, perhaps, no coincidence that the apartment with one unit per floor is currently being
reinvented in Switzerland and being made a touch more extravagant
by all sorts of ingenious details. The loft apartments of Buchner und
Brndler in Basel have, after Roths precursor of the 1930s, returned
to the closed urban ground plan. They inserted precisely into a vacant
space in the existing perimeter block development a six-story apartment building, which clearly looms above the adjacent properties.
Whereas Roth placed his stairwell in a corner, so that it can receive
direct light, Buchner und Brndler dispensed with this arrangement,
because of the site of their building, placing the stairwell instead in
the core of the building. The apartments wind around this stabilizing
pole; the floor plans are open; and the house opens up onto the street
and the rear courtyard through large windows between the two side
walls. The Spartan look of the interior presumes an urbane audience
with similar architectural tastes. The stairwell has lost its overriding
significance; it is needed when the elevator fails and, of course, as

an escape route in case of fire. The stairwell is no longer intended as

a place to meet others. Well-situated urban dwellers celebrate their
apartments as the focus of the lives with lifestyle possessions, but
they are neither dependent on this place nor members of a tenement
house community whose fates are linked.
Building Community: Multiunit Floors and Courtyards
The properties described above are solitary objects, so to speak, not
only in the architectural sense, since they are based on an open plan,
but also in a metaphorical sense, since they are singular cells in a row.
The stacked apartments are separated; every floor is ready for one
apartment; a great deal of individuality is their trademark. The communal aspect is limited. The common spaces are reduced to a calculated minimum. The precisely arranged residential building on Susenbergstrasse in Zurich by Gigon / Guyer features aspects with Roths
type as well as others with that of Buchner und Brndler. Their housing complex consists of three four-story cuboids, which are connected
below ground by a parking garage and on ground level by a plaza
and paths. As in Buchner und Brndlers building, the parking garage
is accessed by elevator directly from the individual apartments, with
no detour. This strict anonymity is contrasted with the carefully
worked-out system of paths that brackets the buildings on the ground
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 Nussbaumer. 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 character. 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
terrain, which slopes slightly down to the Lake geri. Morger/Degelo
play perfectly not only with the historical narrative levels but also
with the repertoire of High Modernism. They provide access to the
two apartments on each floor via small courtyards. The courtyards,
which are more than simply atriums, also make it possible to light
and ventilate the very deep, almost square buildings very well on all
sides. It seems only logical that, as urban sprawl continues, such approaches are being used to augment the modernist repertoire.
Access via a courtyard is not a feature exclusive to properties based

10

on a central plan. The apartment building at Parral 67 by Jacobo

Micha Mizrahi, in the urban context of Mexico City, consists of
two symmetrical volumes separated by a courtyard in the center.
The four-story building is accessed by a light metal stair construction placed in this courtyard. The result is a variant on the type
based on two units per floor, which, because the platforms that provide access to the apartments are very wide, is more like the coupling of two volumes in which each of the units occupies an entire
floor. The charm of this courtyard derives from its apt scale of
proximity and distance, of depth and height. Nor should one forget
that it both thrives on the intense solar radiation of the Mexican
metropolis and reacts to it. The dimensions of such a courtyard can
certainly not be transferred to completely different latitudes (and
altitudes). This courtyard needs this distance: if it were built wider,
it would lose its tension; if it were narrower, it would result in an
unpleasant proximity. Comparing this solution to the lofts in Basel by Buchner und Brndler, which respond to a similar urban
structure, the fundamental differences become evident and the value
of typological thinking and planning obvious. Access via courtyards, which can be partially covered or entirely open, designed as
a plaza or as a path, is one possible approach to viewing access as a
communicative whole.

Fig. 6. Lus Pea Ganchegui and Juan Manuel Encio Cortzar, Vista
Alegre tower apartments, 1958. Photo: Carlos Flores and Xavier
Gell, Arquitectura de Espaa / Architecture of Spain, 19291996
(Barcelona: Fundacin Caja de Arquitectos, 1996), 270.
Fig. 7. Buchner Brndler, Loft house on Colmarerstrasse, Basel. Photo:
Ruedi Walti, Basel
Fig. 8. Susenbergstrasse housing colony, Zurich. Photo: Heinrich
Helfenstein, Zurich
Figs. 9, 10. Dettli Nussbaumer, Erlimatt housing colony, Obergeri.
Photo: Hannes Henz, Zurich

23

11

This kind of access creates wide spaces, which, however, require a

generous scale as well as room, and hence they are not necessarily the
best solution, especially in urban locations. The necessity to provide
access to several units on each floor is as old as urban housing itself.
The smallest and thus most intimate way of forming groups is to provide 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
examples. The multistory apartments of the Onkel Toms Htte (Uncle Toms cabin) forest housing colony by Bruno Taut, Hugo Hring,
and Otto R. Salvisberg, dating from the mid-1920s onward, demonstrate the quality of this type of access. It is very economical, without
placing too much emphasis on that; it provides a unit opposite on
every level, and hence a kind of natural neighbor. The three stories
of many of the buildings in this colony thus unite six parts into one
group by means of a single entryway.
The puritanical severity we find in this housing tract is not, however,
inherent to the type. The architects Duinker & van der Torre have
interpreted this two-unit-per-floor type in a very different way and
thus demonstrated the range of this approach. With their Uithoorn
housing complex, they succeeded in conveying a certain sense of spatial luxury for example, by means of the breathing space in the
hall on the third floor. Martin Sphler, David Munz, and Bruno Senn
deliberately placed pairs of facing units that is, the dialogue of
neighbors within the overall architectonic form in a way that creates a tension. This multistory building thus unites an urban dimension with an almost villagelike ensemble of small parts. Because the
apartments are accessed via terracelike open spaces, however, this
project also introduces a certain distance.
Whereas in the housing colony in the Berlin forest the pairs of units
are very close together, Sphler & Co. sweep air across the platforms
and thus relativize any possible cramped effect within the considerable dimensions of this building. Francis Solers urban interpretation
of this type takes it a step further. He shows its limits but in doing so
also his extraordinary creativity. As in our Zurich example, the units
in Solers apartment building, located not far from the Bibliothque
Nationale de France, are also accessed via a platform. By docking
pairs of apartments, he doubles the number of units that can be accessed via these decks. Soler thus creates a pseudo four-units-perfloor model, which also has disadvantages. Whereas the Swiss example has units that receive light from two sides, Soler cannot achieve
this. douard Franois has demonstrated the possibility of providing
access via external platforms that also serve as terraces. Between

24

Erschlieung Wege bewohnen von Leitern, Spnnern und Laubengngen

12

three volumes of three floors arranged diagonally to one another, he

placed two trapezoidal frames, from which three units on each
floor are accessed. The spaciousness of these planes provides distance, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, enough room for the
residents to make these outdoor areas as their own.
More Horses Pulling the Plow
The types of access and circulation discussed thus far still offer relatively modest advantages in terms of economic efficiency. The trend
to having not just two or three but rather four, five, or more apartments accessed from each level has resulted in its own economy of
pleasure of design: the more units that can be accessed from one level, the better the ratio of net to gross floor space in the building. Not
infrequently, the result is an almost picturesque aesthetic of the floor
plans, as Hans Scharouns Romeo and Julia (Juliet) buildings in Stuttgart confirm. In the Romeo high-rise, an L-shaped corridor provides
access to no fewer than six units. Because the possibilities for floor
plans based on rectangles are quickly exhausted, organic forms are
often brought into play cloverleaf buildings like mile Aillauds
residential building in La Dfense (1975) or organic, expressive
ones like Scharouns. Despite this attractive organic aesthetic, such
buildings cannot help but offer living conditions that tend to anonymity, such as often poorly lit corridors.
The isolation of the residents in a ten-story building may have its
charms under certain circumstances. Everything we know about residential architecture today suggests that such forms contribute significantly to making people feel alone. The hotel-like character that
such properties have under the best circumstances is, as we have noted, not without its charms, leaving aside the question whether that
should be a goal of residential architecture. Such extreme forms,
which have emphatically formalist qualities, have hardly been used at
all in recent years. Because the pressure to build cost-effectively has
not diminished, however, there are interesting examples that seek out
acceptable compromises between purely economic considerations
and a reasonable neighborliness. For their residential high-rise in
Amsterdam in 1998, Duinker and van der Torre created an attractive
type featuring a kind of access loggia. It has three units per floor, in
a form not unlike Scharouns Julia high-rise, and the balconies of the
apartments, all of which face south, rise up into the surroundings at
acute angles. In his housing complex in Berlins Hansaviertel in
195557, Aalvar Alto also tackled the issue of providing access to as
many apartments as possible by means of a horizontal, plazalike

13

space. The corridor is widened to become a real hall. With five units
per floor accessed via an open colonnade, it resembles a covered piazza. Such access halls have a lot of potential, especially in an urban
context. Uwe Schrders building at the Cllenhof in Bonn plays with
this theme on a smaller scale, and no longer as drily organized but
instead featuring many distinct small parts. He joined the access
paths crosswise across an open courtyard, leading through a columned portico and then separating out the paths to the individual
apartments via a tall stairwell.
Excursus: External Galleries
The external gallery has been subject to quite antithetical assessments
in discussions of residential architecture. Despite objectively evident
disadvantages, this type has repeatedly been promoted, especially by
those seeking to reform residential architecture, as a tried-and-tested
method to solve the problems of public housing. Its disadvantages, as
described in the literature, have led to its rejection in many quarters
and for long periods. There have been phases in the history of residential architecture when it was scarcely employed at all and others
in which it seemed to have been rescued from oblivion, as it were, by
ideologically colored arguments. Our presentation of the external
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 architectural 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 attractive social frameworks. Of all the corridor systems for providing access 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
floor. The stairwells they necessitate often become unlit dark zones
and a source of anxiety within the housing complex. Hence this section will examine a wide variety of systems of access via a gallery not
only from aesthetic points of view but also with an eye to their effectiveness as a place of social interaction. The gallery is a very economical system but also a very old system of access and circulation,
whose use has by no means been restricted to residential architecture
but already in antiquity was employed whenever it was necessary to

14

15

circulate large numbers of people along protected paths. The Colosseum in Rome, which has served as the model for the design and
construction of large sports stadiums right up to the present, is mentioned here as one representative of a whole class of architectural
tasks. In his Trattato di architettura, Antonio Averlino better
known by his pseudonym, Filarete dreamt up types of buildings
for his ideal city, Sforzinda, such as the multistory House of Vice and
Virtue, whose arcades should probably be read as galleries. Filarete
probably had knowledge of the design of Oriental hospitals, which
had been passed on by the Knights Hospitaller in Rhodes, for example. The gallery is common as a form of access for hospitals and
poorhouses in particular. One of the finest examples of such medieval
institutions is the Htel-Dieu in Beaune, which had been founded by
the famous Chancellor Nicolas Rolin. It was built between 1443 and
1451 based on plans by Jean Rateau and consists of three wings
around an interior courtyard. The large hall in the southern wing was
used both to care for the sick and for religious services. The northern
wing (see picture) has a gallery, which on the upper floor served as a
covered corridor providing access to the single rooms of the wealthy
patients, which were located here, while the Chambres des pauvres
were in the southern wing.

Fig. 11. Bruno Taut, Hugo Hring, and Otto R. Salvisberg, Onkel
Toms Htte housing colony
Fig. 12. Francis Soler, Durkheim housing complex, Paris. Photo:
Nicolas Borel, Paris
Fig. 13. Hans Scharoun, Romeo and Julia, Stuttgart
Fig. 14. Aalvar Alto, residential complex, Hansaviertel, Berlin,
195557
Fig. 15. Uwe Schrder, Am Cllenhof apartment building, Bonn.
Photo: Peter Oszwald, Bonn

25

Access + Vertical Point Access

Access:
Entrance hall connects the street side with
the courtyard side: vertical point access,
one unit per floor; inside stairwell; area
around the elevator provides direct access
to the apartments; stairwell lit by skylight.

Interior space:
With the exception of the ground floor, each
of the apartments occupies an entire floor.
A compact, vertical access core, shifted
from the axial center of the ground plan,
houses the stairwell, the wet cells, and the
freight elevator. Because of this central access, each floor consists of a single, continuous large room, which can be partitioned
with flexible elements to suit individual requirements. Full-height windows along the
facades, both toward the street and the
courtyard, create an open, urban atmosphere with the characteristics of a loft.

Exterior space:
Balconies attached to oriel elements and
recessed into the volume, roof terrace, private gardens on the ground floor (front garden), and common area in the courtyard.

Morphology:
The volume aligns seamlessly with the row
of buildings, which is slightly recessed from
the street, and its solid walls establish a
clearly defined zone for the front garden as
well as a closed-off courtyard space. The allglass facades facing the street and the
courtyard have parapet walls of green glass
that articulates the floors horizontally. Baywindow-like projections enable residents to
step into the space above the street and
also create a volume with distant panoramalike views.

Schnitt M 1_500

Sample apartment, 1:200

herausgelste
Wohnung M 1_200
Plan
of site, 1:1,000

Cross sections
Top floor
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

Building volumes:
Perimeter block construction; front garden
and courtyard areas; northsouth orientation; 6 floors above ground and 1 below
ground; first floor raised above ground level;
depth: 11 m.

Buchner Brndler Architekten

Site:
Colmarerstrasse 64, 4055 Basel,
Switzerland

Apartments:
7 units
Key: 5 units of 160 sq m, 2 units of 60 sq m

Client:
Buchner Brndler AG Architekten BSA
Completed: 2002

Additional features:
None

Schema Erschliessung M 1_1000

31

Access + Vertical Point Access

Access:
Access patio at the center of the tower;
point access, two units per floor; stairwell
located on the perimeter; each apartment
has its own entrance facing the courtyard.

G
Sample apartment, 1:200
Plan of site, 1:2,000

32

Interior space:
Tower buildings are inserted into the terrain
in such a way that horizontal and vertical
shifts provide optimal views out of the
apartments into the geri Valley landscape.
The individual units have, in keeping with
the slightly sloping terrain, a split-level effect between the living and sleeping areas.
After passing through the entry, a continuum develops from the living room, dining
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 terraces run all the way around the building in
order to provide direct access to outdoor
space from each of the rooms.

Exterior space:
Balconies / terraces run continuously around
the building; in the corners, the outdoor
spaces extend into the depth of the building; private gardens on the ground floor.

Morphology:
In contrast to the massive perforated facade of exposed concrete facing the courtyards, the floor-to-ceiling windows on all
sides and glass parapet elements determine the outward appearance. The splitlevel effect of living and sleeping areas is
brought out by the horizontally articulated
facade and, on the top floor, by a slightly
sloping, asymmetrical roof.

Erlimatt Residential Building, Obergeri

Building volumes:
Ensemble of 6 tower buildings with patio on
the hillside, 2 floors above ground and 2 below, basement and parking garage, depth:
ca. 20 m.

Dettli Nussbaumer

Site:
Schneitstrasse, Obergeri, Switzerland

Apartments:
33 units of 2.5 to 8.5 rooms

Client:
Werk 2 AG
Completed in 2005

Additional features:
Common room

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:
Ground floor with passage between the
street and courtyard areas. Stairs connect
various large access plateaus outdoors.

Interior space:
This extremely deep lot is divided lengthwise into three parallel strips. The apartments are located on both sides of a kind of
open passageway, which projects freely
over the courtyard as an access deck on all
floors and forms a transition between private and public space. The units and maisonettes, most of which are small, receive
natural light from three or four sides and relate to the exterior space in different ways.

Exterior space:
Loggias, access decks with features to enhance their attractiveness as public spaces,
roof terraces.

Wohnung
Typical apartment, 1:200
Site plan, 1:2,000

20

36

10

1 0

in m

Morphology:
The open view of the street makes the
depth of the lot evident. On the street side,
two tall building volumes that recede behind the line of the facade surround an
opening into which the open access levels
have been inserted, with exterior stairs
leading from floor to floor. Full-height windows and aluminum sliding shutters stand
out against the dark clinker facade and give
it an austere order. On the courtyard side,
the structure is a free composition of standing, lying, and projecting volumes.

Apartment Building, Rue de lOurcq, Paris

Building volumes:
Perimeter block construction with rear
courtyard, 8 floors above and 2 below
ground for parking garage, depth up to ca.
40 m.

Philippe Gazeau

Site:
46, rue de lOurcq, 19th arrondissement,
Paris, France

Apartments:
26 units, 13 rooms of various sizes,
maisonette apartments

Client:
SA HLM Toit et joie
Completed: 1993

Additional features:
Food services on ground floor

37

Schnitt

Geschoss_B

Geschoss_A

20

10

1 0

in m

20

10

1 0

in m

20

10

1 0

in m

Cross sections
Level B
Level A
Ground floor
1:500

Erdgeschoss

38

20

10

1 0

in m

Erschlieung Spnner Wohnhaus Rue de lOurcq in Paris Philippe Gazeau

39

Access+ Vertical Point Access

Access:
Lobbies connect the street side to the
courtyard side; vertical point access, four
units per floor; stairwell located in the interior; natural light in the stairwells through
the windows of the loggia openings.

Interior space:
The rational and extremely economic structure of this vertical-point-access building
with four units per floor is developed along
its longitudinal axis. All of the vertical supply
lines and the main load-bearing elements
are bundled on that axis, so that the only
supporting structures required on the facades are rows of slender supports. Most
of the apartments, with the exception of
the corner units and the large apartments,
are oriented to just one side, as a result of
the structure. The living and sleeping spaces
are arranged along a corridor on the longitudinal axis. Two of the units on each floor
have an additional living space in the form of
a deep loggia exterior space that supplements the French balconies.

Typical apartment, 1:200

Site plan, 1:5,000

M 1:5000
40

Exterior space:
Loggia openings cut deep into the building
volume from both sides and provide natural
light for the stairwell; narrow balustrade
space running around the building in the
form of a French balcony; communal roof
terrace.

Morphology:
This I-shaped building volume is staggered,
rising from eight to ten floors, and visually
connects with the neighboring library to
form an ensemble. The building has windows on all sides and has deep cuts, which
divides the volume into three zones. The
slightly projecting ceilings of each floor are
designed as French balconies. The most
striking detail of this austerely structured
building is its silk-screen windows, which
are intended to serve as privacy screens for
residents.

Durkheim Residential Complex, Paris

Building volumes:
Angled slab of a perimeter block construction with southwestnortheast orientation,
staggered up to 10 floors with 3 underground levels with parking garage, depth:
15 m.

Site:
ZAC de Tolbiac, rue Emile Durkheim, 13th
arrondissement, Paris, France
Client:
Rgie Immobilire de la Ville de Paris
Completed: 1997

Francis Soler
Apartments:
94 units
Additional features:
Nursery, stores, and food services on
ground floor

41

Regelgeschoss

20

10

1 0

in m

Standard floor
Ground floor
1:500

Erdgeschoss

42

Erschlieung Spnner Wohnbebauung Durkheim in Paris Francis Soler

20

10

1 0

in m

9. Obergeschoss

20

10

1 0

in m

Cross sections
Tenth floor
Ninth floor
1:500

8. Obergeschoss

20

10

1 0

in m

43

Access+ Vertical Point Access

Access:
Entrance hall on ground floor; parking on
bottom six floors; vertical point access, five
units per floor; interior stairwell; lobby on
seventh floor with additional functions.

Interior space:
The apartments are divided into day and
night areas. The generous living/dining room
is except in the middle apartmentlocated at the corner of the building and faces
two sides. This maximizing of living space
contrasts with the minimizing of the floor
area of the inner rooms that serve it. Access to the apartments is via a combination
of corridors and halls. The loggia areas line
the day and night areas.

Exterior space:
Loggia, adjacent to the living room, kitchen,
and bedroom lobby floor with communal
outdoor space.

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

Morphology:
This pair of high-rises, sharing a continuous
base on the lower six floors, is situated as a
landmark on the edge of the water in the
center of Rotterdam. The massiveness of
the slightly terraced, stone volumes of the
black-stained concrete elements is countered by the glass based on the ground
floor. An alternation of single-wing windows
and bandlike openings of the panorama
windows and loggias lend rhythm to the
vertically stacked floors.

Hoge Heren Residential High-Rise, Rotterdam

Building volumes:
Double high-rise, 29 floors with connecting
six-story base; first floor raised above
ground level; depth: ca. 30 m.

Site:
Gedempte Zalmhaven, 3011 BT Rotterdam,
Netherlands
Client:
ABP, Vesteda
Completed: 2001

Wiel Arets

Apartments:
285 units, 5 penthouses
Additional features:
Caf, swimming pool with sauna and
fitness center
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

Wiel Arts, Tower Hoge Heren Rotterdam, M 1:500, GR Lobby

20

20

10

10

1 0

1 0

Floor plan of an apartment

Floor plan of lobby
Floor plan of entrance
1:500

20
46

Erschlieung Spnner Wohnhochhaus Hoge Heren in Rotterdam Wiel Arets

Wiel Arts, Tower Hoge Heren Rotterdam, M 1:500, GR Entree

10

5 3 10

Cross section, 1:500

Wiel Arets, Schnitt, M 1_500

20

10

1 0

47

Access+ Vertical Point Access

Access:
Access hall with freely developed stairs, located in the interior; hall lit by skylights. The
arrangement of the stairs gives the building
a strong identity in the interior.

Typical apartment, 1:200

Site plan, 1:5,000

48

Interior space:
All of the units are arranged diagonally and
have both closed rooms and open living areas. Interestingly, the glazed entrance establishes a connection between the apartment and the stately stairwell, and the
adjacent placement of the open kitchen
makes it a kind of hinge between the entrance and the living room.

Exterior space:
Continuous balconies around the volume; in
front of the living rooms they project out
like bays; sun shading with metal curtain.

Morphology:
The irregular pentagonal geometry of the
building derived from the form of the lot in
order to optimize its use. In contrast to the
sculpturally shaped interior, the translucent
web of chrome-nickel steel determines the
outward appearance of the building with its
curving, baylike balconies.

Rondo Apartment Building, Zurich

Building volumes:
Solitary tower, 5 floors above ground and 1
below with a parking garage; depth: up to
35 m.

Graber Pulver

Site:
Zurich, Switzerland

Apartments:
22 units of various sizes

Client:
Rondo-Bau GmbH, Kloten
Completed: 2007

Additional features:
None

49

Cross sections
Top floor
Standard floor
Ground floor
1:500

Erdgeschoss

50

20

10

1 0

in m

Erschlieung Spnner Wohnhaus Rondo in Zrich Graber Pulver

Regelgeschoss

20

10

1 0

in m

Obergeschoss

20

10

1 0

in m

51