The artists' colony of the "Blauer Reiter" made it famous: Murnau, a small town nestled between lakes and extensive moorlands in the Alpine foothills, is one of the most attractive places to live. No wonder, then, that properties don't have to wait long for a buyer – as in this case: when the already developed plot on the southern slope was offered for sale, the builders didn't hesitate to make their purchase decision and subsequently commissioned their friends at Moosmang Architects to plan their new home.

As the basement of the existing building was completely waterlogged, the old post-war building could not be preserved. A new idea was needed, and one was quickly found: a semi-detached house was to be built – with the magnificent Alpine view as its focal point. In order not to spoil this view, the builders decided to dig the four garages into the hillside at basement level and cover them with greenery. The problem of slope and stratum water was solved with the help of a concrete trough and ring drainage. In response to the gabled roof with tile covering required by the development plan, the architects developed a very compact, cubic-looking form. The cube of the upper floor spans the more transparent ground floor. As the house is parallel to the slope, all living areas face south towards the mountains. All access areas, on the other hand, are consistently located to the north. The living, cooking and dining areas on the ground floor present themselves as a spacious continuum. Open stairs lead to the upper floor, where the sleeping areas are located, offering space for four people in each half of the house. Storage, utility and hobby rooms in the basement complete the layout and merge seamlessly into the garage level. The simple combination of white walls and ceilings and the continuous grey porcelain stoneware flooring makes the relatively modest 139 m² of living space and 70 m² of usable space per house appear more spacious than they are. Although the semi-detached house is designed as a low-tech building, heat pumps for heating support, pre-installation for solar energy generation and electrically controlled sun protection have not been omitted.

www.moosmang.de

Photography Credits:

Sebastian Arlt
www.bastiarlt.de

(Published in CUBE Munich, Issue 01|22)