Study disabeled housing Lebenslust

Housing Lebenslust

The Stiftung Lebenshilfe in Tunau, Swiss, has written an architects contest to design a housing project for mentally and physically challenged people. The task was to design three dwelling groups and a number of adjacent functions e.g. a collective day time area. Sustainability was a key subject in the contest.

Situation

The site is connected by three roads and is located next to a square whitch lacks clear boundaries. Buildings surrounding the square are all oriented in a different manner so the entries of these are not always connected to the square.

Result

Fitting the functional demands of the living program is achieved by designing three dwelling floors, arranged around a central corridor. This is naturally lighted by openings in the façade. These openings subsequently form individual spaces which, next to the collective living room, provide space to smaller parties. The interconnection of the different bed chambers has been set in such a manner that the orientation is at least south or west. The buildings geometry has been kept very simple. It is a stretched cube with curved edges and improves the definition of the square.

Materialisation

By applying wooden shingles in the façade, the effort is taken to cover the building without any joints. These shingles are a native material and are applied on many farms in the surrounding region. An example of this material is given on the web page “Farm Mauer” on this site

commisioned by:

location:

Tunau Switserland

design:

2006