A horizontal and vertical extension transforms an existing single family house - built in the early eighties - into an apartment building of two units. Next to the original house, a hall complements and connects the two existing, cellular floorplans and provides a new centre of gravity within the plan. In addition, above an attic replaces the former pitched-roof, forming a centrally located patio on the extended figure of the plan.
The tight building regulations, existing structure and required program for the building created a heterogeneous volumetric condition, which meant the expression of the house had to react in a formal way to establish a compositional whole. Facing north, windows of standing proportion with distinctive metal lintels - touching the very top of the façade – structure the surface of the building in a rhythmical order. The former rough plastered house becomes an oversized base, which houses mainly ancillary rooms to the north and an entrance to the east.
The hall addition marks its relevance formally within the figure, as well as its direct relation to the garden and the landscape, through a reduced plinth and the addition of spacious windows or rather groups of windows.
With its two shades of grey, the skin-like wall-cladding is also put into the operation of visually structuring the appearance of the facade and the volume. As a contrast to the rather plain north elevation, the volume reacts to the complex geometry of the southern part by introducing two peripherally situated vertical elements. Between these two vertical figures, the individual worlds of the inhabitants are spanned.
