For any architect, one of the most rewarding challenges is working with existing buildings. How do you amplify what's already strong? Address what's not working? And most importantly, how can you achieve meaningful functional improvements through carefully considered interventions? The N8 project posed these exact questions to Ben Dieckmann architects. The issues were clear-cut: the entrance to this family home was poorly defined, the living areas were fragmented—accessed only through a hallway that skirted the basement stairs—and there was no easy flow from the ground floor to the outdoors.

The solution came through strategic, modest interventions. An L-shaped entry staircase now announces the front door confidently to the driveway. The revised layout centers on a new dining room that seamlessly connects kitchen to living space. Since the original ground floor sits roughly 90 cm above grade, the extension was built on a 45 cm split level—a clever move that gives the dining room generous ceiling heights and improved privacy while providing direct, level access to the rear terrace and garden. On the upper floor, the extension's flat roof becomes an almost 30 m² terrace outside the home office, creating a workspace with genuine character. The contrast is intentional: where the original building is painted white, the new volume is clad in black-stained wood, making the contemporary addition unmistakably distinct.

www.broeckingfenster.de
www.bendieckmann.com

Photography Credits:

Tanja Borgschulte

(Published in CUBE Düsseldorf 03|20)