Gus Wüstemann

Description

The invention that makes this project special is a cross-shaped space (crusch alba = white cross) inserted into the old building fabric that is distinct in colour and material from the rest of the apartment without however distancing itself from the old walls. Rooms are not assigned a specific function in this home; instead »the spaces have a complete lack of hierarchy«. A kitchen is not just a kitchen, and a bathtub can be covered to make a place to sleep. »Programme-free architecture« – a phrase one hears often from Wüstemann – undermines our fixed notion of additive room arrangement and almost has something subversive about it. The peripheral light sources stretch out along the elevated wood strips like a horizon, giving the rooms a feeling of endlessness. They almost seem to be fleeing from themselves. The materials thus become the main protagonists in the apartment, with furniture receding into the background. It is the void that is celebrated here. Storage spaces help to preserve this empty impression.