Architecture at its best doesn't simply deliver contemporary homes—it honors a place's character. This principle guides an apartment complex that Kleszczewski + Partner Architects created for a housing cooperative in Grevenbroich. Built on the grounds of a former urban courtyard, the project seamlessly bridges past and present, transforming a long-neglected site into vibrant residential space.

The architects set out to echo the vanished courtyard within their design, creating affordable housing without compromising on quality. The client's vision included a generous, welcoming staircase—a threshold that would draw residents together and offer glimpses beyond. The resulting composition features two three-storey structures unified by a dramatic, open-air staircase. Like the traditional courtyard gate it replaces, this sculptural core invites passersby to glimpse the residential life within, while offering residents themselves views across the park-like grounds beyond. Exposed concrete flights, flooded with daylight through expansive glazing, read as art installations within the architectural volume. Short covered galleries connect the diverse mix of apartments—20 in total—creating natural gathering points and clear address markers for each home. This intentional variety—studios and two-bedroom units alongside family and senior-friendly layouts—fosters a true community where different generations and lifestyles coexist naturally. The thoughtfully designed landscape bridges the site's elevation changes, revealing itself anew with each season through carefully selected perennials, flowering shrubs, and mature trees. The buildings themselves employ Poroton's self-insulating masonry without additional layers, then finish with locally appropriate clinker brick—a strategy that creates naturally regulated indoor climates. Geothermal energy paired with gas heating serves the complex, while green roofing extends the landscape overhead, completing a design that balances sustainability with social purpose.

www.kleszczewski.de

Photography Credits:

Thomas Drexel

(Published in CUBE Düsseldorf 04|23)