The plot in a mature residential area on the edge of Monheim-Baumberg was not very wide and the heterogeneous neighboring buildings were in close proximity: In order to accommodate the client family's demanding room program, Ricardo Ferreira Architekten from Meerbusch developed and implemented a design that develops sculptural qualities from the clever combination and overlapping of functional areas.

The two-storey house is built like a terraced house directly against the firewall of the neighboring house to the north and is based on its gabled roof cubature and building lines. Towards the street front, the building is set back behind a driveway for the integrated double garage and a separate access path to the covered entrance area. A risalike projection of the upper floor lends the façade plasticity, while a large square window that illuminates the staircase gives it a rather unusual transparency. The backbone of the house is formed by the staircase, which runs from the entrance to the garden side: First it leads in a single flight to the second floor, where there are two children's rooms and an office, then in a U-shape via a landing to the second floor, which has been fitted out as a parents' floor with a dressing room, master bathroom and a sauna. The staircases are connected to the two floors via a bridge. This creates a "staircase sculpture", particularly at the rear of the building, which is a defining feature of the living and dining area on the first floor: The upward-running flights of stairs dynamically open up the space with its slopes and levels. At the same time, daylight streams in not only through the wide sliding window fronts, but also through a large, floor-spanning skylight, which accentuates the garden view of the house with its window cross. The "staircase sculpture" is brought to life by the balanced black and white contrasts and the reduced mix of materials specified by interior designer Dorothea Schlüter: White plastered wall surfaces are combined with black steel beams, dark raw steel stringers and window profiles to create a strong contrast. The side firewalls of the building, which have been given a tactile finish of polished, large-format textured exposed concrete, create a special spatial accent. However, it is not only the "staircase sculpture" integrated into the living space that gives the house a special originality: the building has recesses on each floor to the garden and street side, as well as to the south-facing firewall. This creates - depending on the orientation - balcony areas as well as introverted atriums. As clearly structured as the house appears from the outside, inside it has a special spatial complexity that interweaves the inside and outside in a multi-faceted way.

www.rfcv.de

Photos:

Julia Vogel
www.julia-vogel.com

(Published in CUBE Düsseldorf 01|23)