Danced Out of Line 

 

A difficult trick: How does one turn a terraced house into a dream home? A home found a constructive sample copy in Kuchl / Salzburg. About the situation: In the search for a home, the choice varies mostly between two polar opposites - an apartment or a single family house. The architect, Horst Lechner, explains why although the terraced house is a seemingly ideal compromise, it is not a popular choice: "You have to be able to literally walk around the house.” This refers less to proud homeowners routinely circling their houses; it refers to having sunlight in the home throughout the entire day, having a view, usable area, as well as protected outdoor spaces – these are considered to be critical points for a collective form of living

Wall against wall

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So many dreams of a family home disappear with the purchase of land. Even outside the metropolitan areas, the price per square meter has also skyrocketed in recent years. For a family of five in Kuchl near Salzburg, only the internal unit of a row house complex could be considered. A willy-nilly decision. In addition to the aforementioned negative points, the conventional narrowness of such buildings was particularly concerning for them.The Salzburg architects, Christine and Horst Lechner, found solutions to these concerns through design. They created a building whose interior and exterior extend far beyond the garden terrace by erecting a four-story glass façade on both sides, extending all the way down to the basement and the courtyard. Underground, there is also an office storage space and a guest apartment. The opening from the courtyard allows sunlight into the rooms below the ground. The architects did not shy away from spatial angular work, but instead boldly went beyond the base area of the house.With the second part of the building, which lies under the access zone of the house, a small, very intimate yard was created. The treatment of the topic "cellar" - here by an additional outside door also externally accessible and thus, usable as a unit - has been created in the Kuchler house with a forward-looking dimension, in both architectural, as well as material termPlanning acrobatics. Additionally, the three overlying living floors are characterized by the effort to gain as much space as possible without exceeding the limit of floor space allowed by the government funding program. The generous, translucent grid façade provides a kind of theme for the organization of the floor plan: a pleasant rhythm of open/closed allows the light to circulate vertically, as well as makes the total space palpable from almost every point of the living space. Here, the architects have created a steel girder system that allows any plan variants ad hoc with relatively little effort (insulated wood inserts). As a result, it is possible to adjust the space for any kind of situation.    

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Two-Sided Apartment

 

The splendor of sunrises and sunsets are experienced here in close-up. The impressive, natural scenery influences the atmosphere of the entire house; the landscape marches through unhindered. Definite demarcations were meticulously avoided in this sense: glass tapes for wall and floor finishes and room units are formed like boxes in the space and work like furniture. One example is the combination of dining and working area on the ground floor, which acts as a room divider and keeps the living and dining areas feeling separated. The dominant element of the children's area in the upper floor is a glass cube; it houses the bathroom with a view. When the children are taller, they will paint the transparent cover with watercolors. When it is dark, the brightly lit structure appears to be detached from the ground, anchored on both sides of the relatively closed façades. 

 

INFO BOX ​

 

Value of the Entire Façade (calculated over the area: >0.4 Wm2)

Heating: Woodchips with hot water collectors, controlled

Ventilation System with Waste Heat Recovery

Lot: 260 m2

Building Area: 81 m2

Usable Living Area: 150 m2

Office: Ground Floor 10 m2 Office: Basement 41 m2

Date of Completion: Mai 1998