An Elegant Modern House with Open Spaces and Wall Openings in Hagen, Germany

Houses B1 & B2 by Zamel Krug Architekten

Two residential dwellings featuring well-lit, open-plan rooms, in addition to a cooking, dining and living area with large windows overlooking the garden are to be built on a 1400 square meter building plot.

The two cubes with their almost square floor plan have a similar but not identical basic structure. A two-meter high concrete wall runs parallel to the public access road linking the houses together while at the same time clearly separating them from the surrounding area. The wall only opens up to the road near the area of the front entrances and otherwise shields the property from view. On the eastern side of each house a separate, free-standing carport with a self-contained storeroom has been integrated into this element.

Due to the relatively small build size allowed by the local plan, both buildings are of compact design. An internal corridor separates each house into two parts. On the east side a “service” block built in heavyweight construction accommodates the bathroom, storage rooms, plant room and pool. The west side of the building is built from prefabricated panels and contains a spacious open plan kitchen, dining and living area on the first floor and bedrooms and guestrooms/study on the upper floor.

All areas are interconnected by open spaces and wall openings, creating a line of vision through the building towards the surrounding countryside including the garden and the wooded area to the north. The delicate steel construction of the staircase and the gallery landing on the upper floor link the different elements of the building together. Painted dark gray to match the windows and covered in walnut floor boards, this element forms a contrast to the wall, ceiling and floor areas. The walls and ceilings have been painted white. While the flooring on the first floor consists of light sandstone, the upper floor has been covered with walnut parquet flooring to match the staircase.

From the outside, the two dwellings with the small parapet and vertical red cedar cladding only interrupted by sharp-edged large window openings are reminiscent of elegant blocky furniture pieces which have been placed in an ordered geometric landscape of stone and grass.

Photos by: Zamel Krug Architekten & Stefan Bayer