Many builders in Germany want a house in the "Bauhaus style". This term alone is highly debatable - it usually conjures up images of an open, bright living situation with modern living spaces that flow into one another. A couple of friends with two small children also wanted a house in the "Bauhaus style" from the Cologne office of Bruhn Knechtges Müller Architekten for a plot in Wesseling. However, it quickly became clear that the desired "Bauhaus dream" could not be realized one-to-one on the narrow, north-facing building plot. Instead, a house was created that takes up the classic gabled roof typology of the neighboring buildings, but at the same time creates a generous, modern spatial structure - with plenty of daylight and sunlight. 

Due to the narrow building plot, the structural connection to the neighboring house with a flat rising gable roof was almost indispensable. The front line of the house was already defined by a building line, and the connection to the neighboring building was made by taking up the contour line of the neighboring building. The first floor creates a generous "living through": from the street to the garden, the space is characterized by a spacious open cooking-dining-living situation. In order to still have the necessary rooms for the children's and parents' bedrooms, bathroom and dressing room on the upper floor, the house was implemented as a hybrid construction: a load-bearing reinforced concrete structure with few wall bulkheads supports the wall positions of the upper floor, which in turn were constructed entirely in a weight-reduced, reversible timber frame construction. The unusual vertical opening of the building is striking: the projecting floor slab, in combination with an air space spanning several floors, creates a high room situation with a gallery that is open up to the roof. To compensate for the north-facing orientation of the building, additional openings were created to provide light - such as the wide gable window front that catches the morning sun above the dining table. On the outside, the house blends harmoniously with the two striking dwarf gables protruding from the roof and the overhang of the entrance area to create a sculptural façade with a graduated color scheme.

www.bkm-architekten.de

Photos: 

Viola Epler
www.violaepler.de

(Published in CUBE Cologne Bonn 02|23)