Benrath Housing

Add To Collection

Benrath Housing

Type

Residential › Apartment Multi Unit Housing

SIZE

1,000,000 +

BUDGET

$5M - 10M

The design for a housing scheme in Duesseldorf-Benrath won third price in an invited competition. Being surrounded by a main entry road, a factory compound and a sports field, the area for the project in Düsseldorf’s south is highly charged with a number of sound immissions that render the site almost impossible for the development a housing scheme.The concept tackles and solves the problem in multiple ways. First the urban planning situates the building in a set back from the roads to keep a maximum distance while still allowing a green and silent courtyard. Another benefit of this step is, that all private gardens are facing southwest to allow maximum usability for the inhabitants. The second step is a garden planning that terraces the outside spaces in a way to allow maximum privacy. Green spaces and plantings create a buffer towards the surrounding immissions.The third step is a sound insulating façade that maximizes the living quality in not only technically but also spatially by adding a winter garden to each single apartment. This façade adds a second layer to the building its execution in a simple wood construction enclosed with industrial profiled glass and freely positioned casement windows cuts construction costs. Its design of loosely applied vertical wood beams, creates a lively and friendly environment and an allusion of the nearby city forest. All apartments in the complex are tailored to the needs of young families and are designed to be very open and modern. The loft like living spaces open up towards two directions simultaneously, so that the sun can gleam through the living spaces at any given daytime from the northeast in the morning to the southwest in the afternoon. The straightforward floor plans are not only designed to be family friendly with private and more public areas but furthermore are very easy to execute which renders the building even more cost efficient, which is mandatory in this social housing complex.The southern area of the competition site does not have such severe immision problems. “Point houses” logically fill into the surrounding urban context there. These double houses allow for spatially spectacular floorplans, that are as simple to build as the social housing part and that provide a unique living experience in a beautiful surrounding close to Duesseldorfs city forest.