KIER
The task of the project was the refurbishment of a 60 m2 apartment in a 24 storey highrise built in 1972 close to the center of Cologne.
All non-structural walls were removed to transform the close-knit layout of the apartment into a continuous open space. Though the functions maintain their position in the floor plan, new connections between them are established: Living, dining, cooking, sleeping as well as washing and showering now spatially merge into one another.
Mirrors and reflective surfaces expand the space visually and bring the views on the city and the adjacent park into the apartment.
A crucial spatial intervention - redefining the circulation within the apartment - is the new opening in the central load-bear- ing concrete wall, that was realized by means of a concrete saw.
This was possible due to structural reserves in the overall structure of the highrise. The intervention serves as a case study that structural systems of post war large-scale buildings can be transformed - opening up new spatial and typological potentials.
