House B, Bregenz (AT)

Resembling a bungalow, the house is located along a steep, wall-bordered ascent to the old city gate and separated, on the entrance side, into one part planked with wood and another formed with Eternit. This side gives a chilly impression in spite of its closedness, as the entrance door is glazed and a broad vista opens above to the terrace. A traverse window in the study is proportionally harmonized with the Eternit surface, its effect thus exceeding that of a mere observation slit.
The massively built, lower sleeping area supports the protected roof garden, while daytime activities, cherishing a view on the lower part of the town and Lake, are collected under the shield of an extremely slender stilted roof slab. In front and in the back, frame-like folded panels reunite the halves and create protected aprons on the entrance and garden sides. A corridor, glazed in front and in the back, and running straight through from the entrance to the garden, separates the two principal zones of function in the interior. It is also an autonomous longitudinal room, defined by frontal openings.
The exterior stairs extend into the roof garden in terms of a skylight facility for the bedrooms, which also serves as a balustrade. On the garden side, roofs of different depths shield the living room’s floor-to-floor glass walls, creating a spatial functional transition zone together with the wooden-plan platforms. Clarity, accurateness and civility thereby unite to form a harmonic entity.

Client: private
Location: A-6900 Bregenz
Architecture: Dietrich | Untertrifaller
Project management: Walter Felder
Construction: 1995-1996
Area: 120 m²

Awards
2001 Vorarlberger Holzbaupreis

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photos: © Ignacio Martinez