A young couple planned to build their new home on a sloping plot on the edge of a field. The architectural firm Henecka Architekten from Bruchsal, which was commissioned with the planning and construction, had a tricky task to solve: The clients wanted a barrier-free living concept, which seemed difficult to realize due to the hillside location.

Architect Daniel Henecka accepted the challenge and organized all the living spaces on the garden level. He also impressed the clients with an unconventional solution that allows the house to respond individually to the special nature of the location: From the street, the building presents itself as buttoned-up and compact with its black plaster façade. A suspended façade made of oak strips covers almost the entire length of the house, into which the garage door, front door, house number, letterbox and intercom system are seamlessly integrated. A narrow strip of windows integrated into the upper section of the façade lets in light without revealing anything of the building's interior. A narrow staircase with a domed skylight leads from the entrance area in the basement to the residential floor. Here, the house surprises with its generous openness and light-flooded rooms. On the garden side, the façade opens up with generous glass surfaces that draw the eye to the green surroundings. A cantilevered roof projection provides shade on hot summer days and also serves as weather protection during the transitional period.

The floor plans on the garden floor are consistently open, with the floor being divided into zones instead of closed rooms, and doors have been dispensed with as far as possible. The openness of the floor plan and the merging of the room zones are also emphasized by a homogeneous-looking exposed screed, which was laid throughout the house, including the stairs and wet areas. All fixtures and fittings were planned by the architect and custom-made by a regional joinery. For cost reasons, the window frames were made of meranti, which was given a special glaze to match the oak wood of the curtain wall. In order to be able to implement the desired barrier-free access to the residential floor in the future, an elevator shaft was provided as a precautionary measure, which can be retrofitted with an elevator at a later date if required. In order to be able to use this space sensibly until then, an easily removable wooden ceiling was installed here so that the elevator shaft can be used as a storage room.

www.he-ar.de

Living space: 174 m²
Plot size: 586 m²
Construction period: 2/2015-7/2016
Construction method: Solid house, sand-lime brick with ETICS
Energy concept: Gas condensing technology

(Published in CUBE Stuttgart 03|20)