house in rittgarten

New-build house

in collaboration with Felix Xylander-Swannell Architects 

Client: Private

Dates: September 2019 – Current

Area: 140 sqm

Category: Private House (New-build)

 

House in Rittgarten is a single-family home, designed in collaboration with Felix Xylander-Swannell Architects and currently under construction a couple of hours north of Berlin in the Uckermark region of Germany. The house is located on a large 6000m2 plot in the middle of a typical linear DDR village settlement („Siedlungsbau“), built as a satelite development to the more historical settlement and estate of Rittgarten just 1 kilometre away. The project uses the concept of a diagonal line as its organising principle, allocating service and entrance spaces towards the street while twisting the living spaces back towards the wildflower garden at the rear of the house and onwards to the original village beyond.

 
 

Context - Rittgarten

 

Ground Floor Plan

First Floor Plan

Axonometric - construction elements

 

In section, the same diagonal is used to express a gradual change in the sequencing of spaces, using a sloped roof which rises across entire length of the house from a height of 2.7metres to 6 metres at its terminus above the chimney. In the centre of the house, a small „tower“ stacks two guest bedrooms away from the shared spaces of the ground floor. Focus is placed on creating an interchangable set of spaces, and as such avoids tailoring the interior in favour of flexibility. In its materiality and form the house references two universal typologies within the Brandenburg landscape; the agricultural barns with their ubiquitous Eternit roofs and the „Siedlungsbauten“ with their compact forms, and rough plaster walls.

 

South / East Elevations

 

View across living room

 

Bathroom

The interior is wrapped in exposed blockwork while the external walls are constructed of monolithic blockwork with deep window reveals. The large timber-lined roof oversails, creating covered porches to three sides, drawing the surrounding garden and landscape into the house.

Section across house