Siedlung Hofwiesenstrasse (Guggach)
A Loose Ensemble
Simply and precisely articulated buildings form a loosely composed ensemble. In dialogue with the surrounding context, a diversity of scales and atmospheres emerges, creating the conditions for urbanity.
The intersection of Wehntalerstrasse and Hofwiesenstrasse—long difficult to read as an urban node—is redefined through a mixed-use ensemble comprising a residential and commercial development with kindergarten (DOSCRE), primary school (Weyell Zipse), and park (Atelier Loidl). The design responds to a dispersed urban condition with the precise placement of simple volumes. Oriented towards Wehntalerstrasse while opening space along Hofwiesenstrasse, the ensemble defines a new neighbourhood park, shields it from noise, and connects it to existing open-space networks.
Rotating the residential buildings create a widening opposite the tram stop, forming a small neighbourhood square and a sequence of distinct public places.
A high degree of porosity replaces introverted courtyard typologies. Commercial uses address the square directly, establishing a lively meeting point at the tram stop. Flexible ground floors connect park and street, reinforcing the site as an accessible and legible urban place.
Affordable and sustainable construction should not be a contradiction
An ensemble of compact, simple volumes minimises cost-driving factors while enabling a rich programmatic and typological diversity. Design strategies focus on achieving strong spatial and social impact with minimal economic and material means.
Commissioned by the municipal foundation „Einfach Wohnen!“, the project understands affordable housing as a societal responsibility. Reducing floor area consumption is central—but reduced space demands higher performance in functional, spatial, climatic, and social terms. Inspired by Italo Calvino’s concept of “lightness,” the project embraces simplicity without austerity, allowing architectural quality to emerge from economic constraints rather than collapse under them.
Rational stacking, compact building depths, and a consistent structural system enable efficient construction. Despite modest storey heights and minimum apartment sizes, spatial generosity is achieved via through-apartments, clear organisation, and carefully proportioned façades. The internal organisation of the apartments—with a bedroom extending towards the façade via an anteroom—enables efficient spans. This consistent use of party-wall construction selects a structural typology that can be realised quickly and cost-effectively. And yet, despite this rationality, the apartments achieve considerable spatial richness. Even with relatively modest storey heights and minimum sizes in accordance with housing subsidy requirements, they feel generous.
Economical construction elements form a restrained background, complemented by selective accents and appropriation-friendly details. Low investment costs result in a distinctive architectural expression and high everyday usability.
A limited degree of collective “luxury”—roof terraces, generous entrance spaces,
shared thresholds—benefits many and counters the risk of bleakness. The architecture remains deliberately unfinished enough to absorb traces of life and invite appropriation.
Neighbourhood and Privacy
The design balances respect for privacy with the conviction that complete withdrawal into the private realm carries social risk. In response to changing patterns of urban living, the project offers a differentiated mix of housing types and forms of cohabitation.
All apartments extend from park to street, benefiting from light, views, and tranquillity. Smaller units cluster around a shared urban loggia, reinterpreting the access gallery as a voluntary social space rather than an enforced one. Bedrooms consistently face the quiet park side, while living spaces remain flexible and permeable. Carefully articulated thresholds (forecourts, plinths, galleries) mediate between private and collective realms.
Larger apartments form their own micro-communities, accessed via external terraces and staircases that encourage informal exchange. Patios, winter-garden kitchens, and maisonette typologies provide spatial richness and adaptability across all apartment sizes.
Noise protection is treated not as a constraint but as a design driver. Urban placement, building depth, articulated façades, and layered access spaces create quiet interiors while maintaining active street fronts. All apartments offer quiet private outdoor spaces facing the park, reinforcing liveability in a noise-exposed urban location.
Ensemble and Autonomy
The ensemble’s underlying order is simple, yet its architectural articulation generates complexity through the dialogue with the city. Plinth elements operate as low-threshold transitional spaces, contributing both to the buildings’ expression and to public life.
Viewed from Hofwiesenstrasse, the residential buildings form an asymmetrical pair marking the transition between neighbourhoods. Their end façades become “faces” to the city, while park-facing façades define a calm spatial edge. Recurring elements— oversized stone columns, colour accents, articulated circulation—create coherence across the ensemble while allowing each building its own identity.
Photovoltaic systems are integrated expressively into façades and roofs, not concealed but made visible as part of the architectural language. PV elements serve simultaneously as energy generators, shading devices, and urban signifiers, contributing to a place-defining façade rarely associated with standardised housing or energy infrastructure. Roof-mounted systems complete the energy concept, supplying a significant share of on-site electricity and making post-fossil energy production perceptible in everyday life.
The Large Scale Needs the Small
The kindergarten is part of the ensemble yet deliberately distinct. As a low, single-storey timber building, it mediates between park and neighbourhood while asserting itself as a public building with its own address. Its simple timber construction allows efficient prefabrication and clear spatial organisation.
Playful architectural elements—oversized timber columns, verandas, tiled benches, and vivid colours—lend the building a childlike character. Inside, natural materials and strong colour accents create a robust yet joyful environment.
The outdoor space is organised into differentiated play zones embedded in a garden landscape, offering opportunities for quiet play, movement, and nature based exploration. The kindergarten thus becomes both a social anchor and a formative place within the urban ensemble.
Place and In-Between Spaces
The precise urban placement creates spaces of high functional density while maintaining permeability and transparency. Public, semi-public, and private realms are clearly distinguished yet fluidly connected.
A porous open-space concept replaces narrow streets with a neighbourhood park, a shaded public square, and a sequence of intermediate spaces that foster encounter and social interaction. Large-canopy trees structure paved areas, providing shade and climatic comfort. The arrangement of buildings shields the park from noise while allowing it to participate in urban life.
Key collective spaces—the neighbourhood square, terrace, bike plaza, and park—are defined by simple materials and generous proportions, inviting appropriation. A renaturalised stream enhances biodiversity and offers rare opportunities for playful interaction with water in an urban setting. Green roofs compensate for sealed surfaces, improve microclimate, retain rainwater, and contribute to biodiversity.
Together, architecture and landscape form a coherent spatial system in which affordability, sustainability, and urban quality reinforce rather than contradict one another.
