House with two columns
Our intern’s sister wants to build a house. With a lot of luck, the land for it was acquired at a discount using the so called housing model for natives and local residents. The lot is situated between the stables and barns of the neighboring farm and the first completed “dream homes” of the new local housing development. The local zoning plan mandates the direction of the roof and its large overhang as well as the materials for the facade. The homeowners have already consulted various prefab housing companies. But their budget is too tight for them and the companies’ planning proposals are unacceptable, even for “amateurs”. A simple house, 5.80 x 14 meters, very narrow. The layout for the ground-floor shell consists only of the loadbearing exterior walls and two (non) supporting columns. Unplastered brick masonry, with no ETICS or insulated filling, simply grouted with lime. The groundfloor is zoned into spaces with wooden structures situated alongside the two columns. Simple untreated wooden windows. Solid spruce floorboards on the second floor. Reused flamed boards as cladding for the facade. Recyclable materials as much as possible. No oil-based insulation, no mechanical ventilation, no cement plaster, no adhesive tape, no sliding windows, no balcony, no garage, no tarred driveway, no hobby room, no basement- a questioning and challenging of common standards that allows for a great deal of personal input. The sealed surface is small, the living climate excellent, and the energy consumption far below the values expected in Germany’s Energy Saving Ordinance. A Smart Home without any technical finesse. A “primitive” house, astonishingly modest, when seen within the context of its neighbors. In its expression, identifying more readily with the sunburned utility buildings of the local farmers than with its “classmates” and functioning, completely unexpectedly, as a joint, a connecting link in the patchwork carpet at the edge of the village.
