A client envisioned her new home with modern architecture defined by clean lines and a distinctive façade—all while meeting energy-efficiency and accessibility standards. For the architects at Architom, the brief presented an additional challenge: designing a separate, fully accessible apartment for live-in care staff.

The site presented considerable obstacles: an extreme hillside slope on a steeply ascending street, combined with the building's considerable scale. Yet the design team achieved an elegant solution, making the 16-metre street frontage appear less monolithic. By recessing the basement level, they dissolved the building's massive presence—allowing the lower floor to nestle naturally into the slope. "We oriented the living spaces to the south to flood the interior with natural light," explains architect Thomas Buderath. Expansive panoramic windows framing eastward views of the Eifel landscape become a living artwork in themselves.

Despite the challenging topography, the architects ensured complete barrier-free access throughout the property—house, garage, driveway, and gardens alike. The client's passion for contemporary design comes alive in the façade's play of contrasts. To articulate the main floor and visually lighten its mass, the team devised an ingenious approach: the gabled roof residence—its form mandated by the development plan—features a bronze-hued metal façade executed as vertically stacked standing-seam panels. This floating-like upper level creates a striking visual accent: the rhythmic variation in panel widths produces an organic quality, choreographing a captivating dance of light and shadow across the façade.

The accessible apartment unit is accessed via a steeply inclined side street, with an interior staircase descending to the basement level—which accommodates building services and a guest room. Sustainability, energy efficiency, and resource conservation were fundamental design priorities: the use of aluminium as a fully recyclable material—in both the façade and aluminium-wood windows—combined with photovoltaic panels and geothermal heating, exemplify thoughtful, forward-thinking architecture.

www.architom.de

www.prefa.de

Photography:

Prefa

Croce & Wir
www.croce.at

Kern Photography
www.kern-fotografie.de

(Published in CUBE Cologne 02|24)