Dorner\Matt Architekten: Wohn- und Geschäftsgebäude Thalbachgasse 4 - best architects 15

Dorner\Matt Architekten

Wohn- und Geschäftsgebäude Thalbachgasse 4

best architects 15

multi-family homes

Place

Bregenz

Photos

Bruno Komfar, Wien

Description

Building is not determined by rational considerations; building is subject to conventions. But a small town house in Bregenz managed to flout the builder mainstream from the very start. It set out to show that diversity coupled with spatial multiplicity could appeal to clients more than repeating the same old standard solutions. Here, an enlightened client became an active partner for the architecture. Each apartment has a two-storey atrium that spills over into the next floor. These vertical extensions are mapped on the rhythmic façades according to the inner logic of the floor plans, none of which is like the next. The white exposed concrete mixed with Jurassic limestone used on the exterior was washed and becomes a plastic expression of this town house with its narrow site. The dark anodised windows are set at different levels. These technically precise tectonics enter into a tension with the haptic porosity of the exposed concrete that only becomes evident on second glance.