Built in 1934, this residential home exemplifies modernist restraint – marked by clean lines and distinctive design features, including projecting volumes, a rounded bay window with coloured leaded glazing, and an elegantly curved wooden staircase. Interior architect Michaela Fuchs from Bonn was tasked with its renovation, expansion, and redesign. Her holistic approach seamlessly unites the building's interior and exterior worlds.

The owners sought more living space and improved energy performance without compromising the home's original character. A two-storey extension with a rooftop terrace rises along the street façade. Three sets of floor-to-ceiling French doors flood the ground and upper levels with natural light. This new addition strikes a bold contrast: while the heritage building's façade remains white rendered, the extension wraps itself in a sleek, ventilated black aluminium system. The updated window wall frames sweeping views across the surrounding landscape, the Rhine, and toward the Siebengebirge hills. Respecting this visual dialogue, every window and entrance door in the original structure was replaced in kind – black-lacquered wooden frames now punctuate the fresh white plaster. Even the historic leaded windows were painstakingly upgraded, integrated into modern insulating glass units that enhance both thermal and acoustic performance, with reinforced and refinished frames. This design strategy extends throughout. Inside, white dominates the walls, door and window frames, softened by subtle, muted tones and strategic black accents – in furniture, lighting, and accessories – creating an inviting, luminous interior anchored by oiled oak parquet in the open-plan living-dining space. The original wooden staircase was fully restored: stringers, balusters, and risers gleam in fresh white paint, while the handrail wears a sophisticated black finish.

www.michaela-fuchs.de

Photography:
Arseny Rossikhin
www.rossinikhinarseny

(Published in CUBE Cologne 02|24)