Modersohn & Freiesleben

Description

On an access road leading to Lake Scharmützel in Bad Saarow, two Berliners wanted to build a single-storey timber home that was anything but rustic. The starting point for the design was an 8.5 × 6.2 metre living room with stove and oven, a »prototypical« house. Around this core a layer of space is arranged like a shell, consisting of two bedrooms on one side, a carpentry and boatbuilding workshop on the second, and a bathroom and utility room on the third side, where the entrance is. The impression of a primordial dwelling is reinforced by exterior walls set at obtuse angles, whose windows therefore look out past the neighbouring houses. The living room opens to the south onto a garden with a covered terrace. The projecting roof also shelters the entrance.  

The framework of the house can be read from the living room: On the load-bearing walls rest two purlins, the self-supporting one thicker than the other. Filigree panels reinforce the triangle of the roof ridge, taking on the look of bulkheads in this boat builder’s home. The projecting roof is slanted only slightly – in order to reduce the house’s height – and bent downward on the longitudinal sides. Made of shimmering sheet zinc, it wraps around the house in multiple angles. The outer walls are clad in three-layered Siberian larch panels stained a silvery tone. The uniform colouration of walls and roof make the house look smaller than its 156 square metres. Its special shape, materials and tonality help it blend organically into the site.