The brief was to build a
spacious timber constructed private residence in the eastern
Uckermark in rural Brandenburg. Small farm buildings dot the
wide-open landscape in what is primarily agricultural land. For this
project, we took up this theme of the lone homestead in an open
landscape. The property evolves around a paved central courtyard as
external extension to the living areas inside the house. Principal
building and the annex are aligned longitudinally to the yard. The
main residence is built around a large, central, open plan area,
which serves as live-cook-work-lobby space. Zones are loosely defined
by the solid implant of a sanitary block containing bathroom and
guest WC. Four separate rooms link onto this central space on the
southwesterly and northeasterly fronts. The concept of the
room-in-a-room obviates the use of service corridors. The timber
construction consists of laminated wooden trusses with a 9m span. It
rests on an only 12cm-strong base plate. Thermal insulation for walls
and roof is achieved with a 30cm infill layer of compressed cellulose
flakes blown into cavities. The solid central core of the house
consists of reinforced precast concrete filigree slabs, with their
concrete infills executed in situ. Longitudinal walls and roofing are
fibreboard; gable walls are clad in unplaned larch-wood planks.
Thermal
efficiency operates on the premise of the thermal storage capacity of
the solid concrete core of the house and the attached solid fuel
masonry stove with an ingenious system of internal fireclay-lined
heat-exchange channels exuding heat to warm the house.