This project is set at the transition point between a settlement area with perimeter block development and an open development in a well-established residential area of Graz.
The aim was to provide high quality living spaces that would emphasize communication among tenants and provide a variety of floor plans, which encourage and facilitate different generations of people living there. The design also leverages the existing beauty of the Art Nouveau building and a courtyard pavilion.
In regards to urban development, the new L-shaped building and the existing building create a courtyard, which offers free spaces and greenery and blends common spaces inside the protected yard with the surrounding landscape.
The nearly fully-glazed façade is new and faces the courtyard which is interlaced with the outdoor spaces including loggias, balconies and roof terraces.
Screens - primarily used as sun-protection - serve as an interplay of open and closed interfaces for each flat. A common walkway leading to the street is a wide communication zone which generates an area for stairways, ramp and entrance to the underground parking on the west corner.
What was once a decorative stucco-relief motif on the old building façade, a chestnut leaf is re-interpreted to a new extensive pattern, shown in the current façade as well as the window grid, connecting the old and new buildings. The same graphic is also printed on the new loggia's folding shutters in this historical building. These newly created spaces blend the living and sleeping rooms into one unit.
The entire project includes 97 flats and 25 different ground plans of 18 to 110 m² apartments, and offers housing options for singles, families and seniors. Additionally, the housing provides underground parking for 72 cars, 3 office units, a common outdoor space with community gardening, as well as a thoughtful energy concept by the integration of a groundwater pump and photovoltaics in heating and cooling. The apartment building was redesigned to offer high quality living for a mixed community of users and at the same time offers a unique design in a sustainable way, a true example's of INNOCAD's holistic approach to all of their projects.
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