Bedroom
House S/Yonder – Architecture and Design
House S/Yonder – Architecture and Design
Text description provided by the architects. With Haus S, a couple from Berlin wanted to realize their vision of a home that grows. Planned in the first step as a holiday home on a small budget, at a later stage it was expanded into a retirement home. Under a roof designed as a kind of extended raised skins with a fine view of the mountains, further floors were to be added gradually.
While these plans for a combination of minimum area and maximum height were thwarted by opposition from the local council, the second design met with widespread approval. It was reduced in size by one floor, and revised plans included a large open space and a small annexe housing a sauna that appeared to have been cut from the ground floor volume. In the end, the overall height of the house was reduced by only 1 metre.
The client chose a vacant plot in the center of the village of Ersingund with a stunning view of the Allgäu hills and the peaks of Vorarlberg that no one dared to build on due to its location on a steep slope. By developing the plot, the new owners contributed to the necessary rural uniformity. A cool old tree was also saved by wrapping the sauna hut around it.
Contributing to rural enhancement and preserving trees weren’t the only sustainable aspects of simple wood construction. By dispensing with sound insulation, the structural surfaces of ceilings and floors can be left as a finished surface, without additional seams in the interior masonry. A bivalent heating system, where the air/water heat pump provides the base load and the fireplace burner in the living room takes care of the peak load when outside temperatures drop, ensuring efficient and economical heating without compromising on a comfortable atmosphere.
The simple rotation of the roof and the inwardness of the outer walls of the rectangular structure create an ingenious spatial structure for the living floor under the roof. Not only did this mean that circulation areas were not necessary, but the efficiently designed living space also shows through in generous proportions through the taper opening and cleverly chosen room heights. Wide openings in the façade were avoided in order to deliberately frame the stunning views while at the same time creating a relaxing sanctuary despite the building’s exposed site.
