Anne Hangebruch Mark Ammann Architekten
A townhouse in Lübeck’s founding quarter
best architects 23
multi-family homes
Place
Lübeck, Germany
Studio
Photos
Maximilian Meisse
Description
An international
architectural competition was held in 2015 for the design of three standardised
houses on the site of the oldest merchants’ quarter in Lübeck’s Old Town, which
was heavily destroyed in the Second World War. The winner was the Fischstrasse
16 townhouse with two office and five residential units. The project combines
the historical type of the Lübeck plank house with the demands and requirements
of modern living. Each of the seven units is different: The ground floor has
4.2-metre-high rooms with a gallery level, the first floor develops across the
side wing into the depth of the site, and the third-floor duplex opens onto the
large roof space, from which the view extends to St. Mary’s Church. The theme
of the stepped gable and the exploration of the possibilities offered by brick
for a relief structure on the façade were particularly inspiring for the design
of this urban house. The street façade is divided into a mural two-storey base with
a fine brickwork relief above. The stepped gable reshapes the roof hidden
behind it, enlarging the façade area and thus creating a stronger frame for the
street space. Slender brick pilasters, formed from shaped bricks, emphasise the
verticality. Bevelled moulded bricks are used for the profiles of the window
jambs, sills and pilaster strips, reinforcing the plasticity of the brick
relief.