Courtyard Houses
This book is also available in a German language edition. (ISBN 978-3-7643-7839-4) Library of Congress Control Number: 2007932929 Translation from German into English Usch Engelmann, Seattle Graphic Design and Drawings: Sebastian Schaal, Martin Trefon Assistance: Simon Gallner, Leon Schmidt Bibliographic information published by the German National Library The German National Library lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available on the Internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de. This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, re-use of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in other ways, and storage in data bases. For any kind of use, permission of the copyright owner must be obtained. 2008 Birkhauser Verlag AG Basel Boston Berlin P.O. Box 133, CH-4010 Basel, Switzerland Part of Springer Science+Business Media Printed on acid-free paper produced from chlorine-free pulp. TCF OCJ Printed in Germany ISBN: 978-3-7643-7840-0 9 8 7 6 543 2 1 www.birkhauser.ch
Gunter Pfeifer and Per Brauneck Courtyard Houses A Housing Typology Birkhauser Basel Boston Berlin
Contents Preface Typology The principle of combination Floor plan types Garden courtyard house Group of houses" Matosinhos", Eduardo Souto de Moura Brick House, FKL Architects Detached house, Ernst Linsberger Group of houses" Amstelveenseweg", Claus en Kaan Group of houses" Quinta da Barca", Joao Alvaro Rocha Student project, Martin Trefon Residential ensemble, Lang + Schwarzler Detached house"haus X", Netzwerkarchitekten Group of houses" Interreg 2", Motorplan Project" Buchholz Ost". Atelier 5 Residential house, MADA s.p.a.m. Student project, Oliver Schaper Student project, Hong Viet Duc Project" BrUnnen Nord", Atelier 5 Courtyard house study, Markus Rommel Detached house" Rua do Crasto", Eduardo Souto de Moura Residential house, Patrick Gartmann Student project, Jan Hendrik Hafke Shared courtyard house Student project, Daniel Lenz Student project, Alexandra Jagiela Student project, Sandra Dolder Student project, Marco Sedat Student project, Beate Heigel Project" Buchholz", Rainer Oefelein L-shaped house Three studio houses, Becher + Rottkamp System houses, G. A. S. Sahner Project, GUnter Pfeifer Student project, Leon Schmidt Student project, Sebastian Schaal Student project, Simon Gallner Student project, Martin Trefon Student project, Kamilla Patzhold 6 8 18 20 22 24 26 28 30 31 32 34 36 38 39 40 42 43 44 46 48 50 52 54 56 58 59 60 62 64 66 67 68 69 70 71 4
Student project, Per Brauneck 72 Student project, Kathrin Ellner 73 Group of L-shaped houses Group of houses, Roser-Kuhn 74 Group of houses" DammstraBe", Roser-Kuhn 76 Student project, Eva Martini 78 Patio house Detached house" Casa No Litoral Alentejano", Aires Mateus & Associados 80 Weekend house, Ryue Nishizawa 82 OS House, Nolaster 84 Residences in Minusio, Raffaele Cavadini 86 Detached house, Krischanitz & Frank 88 Student project, Nik Wenzke 90 Student project, Jan Kucera 92 Group of houses" Kleine Rieteiland", Bosch Architects 94 Apartment house, Ryue Nishizawa 96 Group of houses" Gooimeer", Neutelings Riedij k 98 Group of houses" Liqu id Sky", Pentaplan 100 Atrium-type house Detached house" Machiya", Kazunari Sakamoto 102 Detached house" FOB Home 1". EO.B.Architects 104 Apartment house, Kazunari Sakamoto 106 Student project, Sebastian Schaal 107 Student project, Sebastian Schaal 108 Bibliography 110 Illustration credits 112 5
Preface The way we live is a direct transformation of social structures, politics, religion and topos and, as such, mirrors society. Methods of construction and materials employed turn the various types of residential dwellings into products of the conditions of their context, e.g. the immediate spatial su rroundings, the climate, flora and fauna, etc. Thus, complex house types evolved such as the Greek and Roman peristyle house, the Chinese and Islam ic courtyard house and the various European farmhouse types. The urban structures of districts and housing developments in cities like Berlin, Hamburg, Amsterdam, Paris or Venice were founded on the typological particularities of their residential buildings. In the age of globalisation, it seems that the characteristics of the different types of dwellings with their particular regional features have been forgotten. Technical innovations enable and encourage the disappearance of local, passive regulatory systems that were simple and ecological. Onesimple residential house type is the Black Forest house, which represents a cultural form of living, working, security, and continuity. Th is house type effectively reacts on the given conditions, exploits possibilities, and combines a farmyard, stable, harvest shed and dwelling to form one unit under a single roof. It is a direct image of the social structure within itscultural and economic context. Season-related daily work routines permeate shape, function and structure of the house and result in an authentic and ecologic house type that is simple yet highly complex. Since the industrial revolution, increasingly shorter cycles of social, economic and ecologic changes have caused a break in the continuous development of regional house types such as the Black Forest house. New global life patterns have unhinged the living space from its immediate spatial context. Different durations and habits of use necessitate flexible typologies. Socialisation patterns have diversified as well; known collective living patterns in permanent family and relationship structures have lost their influential power. Complex relationships have developed that result in a multifaceted fragmentation of different psychological worlds. Today, we experience this multiphren ic situation as a normal way of life. In our world, traditional housing patterns have decreased in value; some have even become completely unsuitable. The detached one-family house - still the most desired model for residential living - is such a type of house. It consumes too much property space. The ratio of living area, surface area 6
and volume is uneconomic and irresponsible from an ecological point of view, especially since maintenance costs and the amount of energy needed will continue to rise. Furthermore, most types are inflexible and require extensive modifications if the occupant structure changes. The detached onefamily house cannot meet the dynamic demands of growing or decreasing numbers of occupants. These developments and tendencies that we all can experience in our immediate environment constitute the motive for this series of books, which originated out of research conducted at the Department of Architecture at the University of Darmstadt. The task of a prospective typological training within the scope of designing residential buildings comes to the fore in this project. Together with our students, we want to develop new building types that take current as well as future developments into consideration. The idea for this series of books about residential building typologies was developed in view of the strong persistency of those involved in housing today: not only students and architects, but also building societies and developers who allegedly know whatthe"customers" want and try to withstand changing conditions by using proven patterns. In this series of books, the variety of house types is sorted into different categories. The first two volumes cover the courtyard and row house types. Typologies of houses are presented that can be joined on at least two, sometimes three sides, and therefore can grow into relatively dense urban structures. Volumes featuring townhouses and detached houses will follow. Each volume is structured in such a way that the complexity of the types presented - which originate partly from research projects and partly from built examples - increases within the course of the book. The illustrations are largely limited to floor plans, with complementary sections where needed. We abstained from including elevation drawings because in most cases they are typologically irrelevant. The project descriptions are intended to call attention to particularities; also, they point out potential problems (e.g. through a change of orientation). Built examples are therefore illustrated only with regard to their typology; the photos chosen represent the characteristics of the house type in question. Explanations of the structure and comparisons of economics are not included at all. Ecological advantages are pointed out. 7