An open house with optimal daylight and sunlight, a connection to nature and a view over the city - that's what a couple wanted for themselves and their two children. After talking to the architect Robin Klein from Cologne, the owners quickly abandoned their initial idea of a prefabricated house: "Even a tight budget doesn't rule out an architect-designed house - especially as it creates a quality of living that is much more tailored to individual wishes and needs.

The architect responded to the heterogeneous surroundings of the newly designated development area on a wooded hill above the medieval town of Mayen with a minimalist design: the clearly contoured, geometric volume with the sharp-edged gabled roof deliberately quotes the original form of the house in a minimalist way in order to set it apart from the neighboring buildings that already exist or are still planned in the area. At the same time, it is highly compact: on the 500 m² corner plot, the house has a footprint of just 9.04 x 9.04 m², built over two full storeys. The simple exterior form is also the result of sunrise and sunset. Both in terms of energy and the impression of daylight, the natural course of the sun and the intensity of light form the matrix according to which all window openings in the house were positioned. The entire living area on the first floor has been planned as a transparent, flowing space and implemented with a rather unusually high, highly energy-efficient proportion of glass surfaces given the budget. The floor-to-ceiling panoramic window to the east alone extends over a width of 6 m and surprises with a spectacular view over the city. In the center, a sculptural exposed concrete staircase with serrated edges on both sides connects all levels of the building. In conjunction with a load-bearing wall, this results in clear zoning and a natural circulation of movement in the house: both on the first floor, where the entrance, kitchen, living and dining areas are arranged, and on the upper floor, where the master bedroom with dressing room, bathroom and study gallery are located, you can access two other rooms from each room and thus move around the staircase in a cycle. In addition to ancillary rooms and a sauna, the basement houses the children's rooms, which open onto the garden via floor-to-ceiling windows. A brine-to-water heat pump provides efficient heating, and there was no need for additional cooling and ventilation - both the requirements of the KfW 70 efficiency house and the targeted construction costs were thus even undercut.

www.robinklein.com

(Published in CUBE Cologne Bonn 02|20)