Studio DIA

Description

A slender steel frame, painted in a distinctive yellow, characterises the south façade of the Stromboli cooperative apartment building in the west of the city of Bern. This «communal terrace» serves as an access gallery for the apartments but also provides a generous, private outdoor area for the residents that facilitates a feeling of community. The entire building is accessed via a central, spacious staircase that encourages encounters. The entrance hall is part of a spatial sequence that connects various levels of the city while also providing access to the building’s common areas, a library and a classroom. At garden level, the house has five maisonette flats, which have the unique character of small, detached houses. Each of the 26 apartments in the tower and the 15 apartments in the elongated part of the building is organised around a central kitchen-living room giving onto the bedrooms. Some of the apartments can also be connected via «secret doors» in the interior, enabling them to be combined to create a variety of domestic layouts. We have chosen a construction method that is both ecologically sustainable and economically viable: The ceilings and columns are made of reinforced concrete, and a façade of prefabricated, fully insulated timber components is mounted on top of this structure. The timber is protected from the elements by a lightweight cladding with various types of corrugated fibre cement panels. The steel framework forming the balconies and access gallery is self-supporting.