The days of the house that stood in front of today's white villa were numbered. It was demolished down to the partial basement level and a new building was erected on the site. The load-bearing structure of the existing building would not have met the requirements of the new building. The new owner is both client and architect. He designed a villa in the Bauhaus tradition, which presents itself completely differently from every direction. The plot was slightly raised so that the front of the house, when approached from the east, looks like a stepped structure made up of various cuboids and cubes. The property is enclosed by a white wall. Black partition walls zone the garden, creating different outdoor areas and a front and rear garden. Various materials were used in this two-storey detached house in Mönchengladbach: On the first floor, the walls are partly brick and partly concrete. The upper floor, on the other hand, is a timber construction. The use of pillars and lots of glass on the first floor gives it a light and transparent appearance and allows for the open floor plans inside. The layout of the rooms on the first floor follows the classic pattern of cooking, eating and living. The parents' bedrooms and bathrooms and those of the two children are on the upper floor. There is a small guest apartment and a sauna and wellness area in the basement. Some of the interior fittings were also designed by the team of architects themselves, such as a massive, 

4.5 meter long oak table for the dining room. It was the client's wish to create an architecture in which all norms and definitions regarding spatial design are broken and raised to another level. "Certain proportions are deliberately oversized - such as those of the rooms - or undersized, such as the door openings, to take the effect of creating space to the extreme," says architect Torbali. His guiding principle is Ludwig Mies van der Rohe's famous motto: "Less is more". He advocates a radical reduction to what is necessary, beautiful and permanent - with high-quality materials and the highest design standards. A seamless screed in platinum white was poured for the floors, the tiles are also seamless and the window profiles are frameless.

The outdoor areas were designed in the same color tones to ensure the creation of space inside and out. In various garden areas, marble gravel is used as high-grade chippings and large slabs are used for seating. The main source of energy is an air heat pump and - if required - a photovoltaic system on the flat roof.

www.ap-torbali.de

Living space: 447 m²
Plot size: 2,400 m²
Construction period: 2021-2022
Construction method: Brick, concrete, wood
Energy concept: Air/heat pump

Photos:

Giulia Coscia
www.fotografie-coscia.de

(Published in CUBE Düsseldorf 01|23)