Ludescher + Lutz Architekten : Ernas Haus – student flats or micro-living on the Winderhof - best architects 21

Ludescher + Lutz Architekten

Ernas Haus – student flats or micro-living on the Winderhof

best architects 21

multi-family homes

Place

Dornbirn, Austria

Photos

Elmar Ludescher

Description


Ernas Haus on the Winderhof is a co-living residence for students who want to live extremely comfortably in a cosy space, right next to the university and, at the same time, get to know the countryside and people. Students have the opportunity to experience the way of life of the Winder family and benefit from the produce of the Winderhof farm.

 

Location and surrounding area

The Winderhof is located in the Oberdorf district of Dornbirn, a neighbourhood that can be described as the oldest part of Dornbirn. The surrounding area is characterised by farm buildings and the villas of former textile industrialists.

 

The ensemble

The existing farmhouse from 1890 was carefully restored and extended by a farm shop at street level. A storage building with a basement, the so-called Beerenstadel (best architects 19), was erected on a remaining triangular plot in 2015. It is an important hub for the marketing of the farm’s own produce and a sign of commitment to the Oberdorf area. The family was able to acquire an old farmhouse on the opposite side of the road for the third stage of construction – Ernas Haus. Apart from the enormous living area, it was demolished, and a wooden extension was built that creates a total of 18 residential units.

 

Local architectural concepts

The three buildings all share a steep pitched roof with kinked gables. The new gable silhouettes respond nimbly and abstractly to historic building stock while defying modern, ideological categorisation.