|
road and landscape
friedrich ebner and heike kröpelin acquired an area of meadow about two kilometres southeast of hallein motorway junction, which a local farmer had rezoned as building land a number of years ago. for the clients the motorway and the road form an important network of connections between a business in germany, the town of salzburg and the adneter riedl. the site is removed from village life and there are no shops or restaurants within walking distance, therefore the car is the means of mobility. this context with the twin poles - the road as a space of motion and the space of the landscape - determine both the character of the site and the architectural concept. the architects maria flöckner and hermann schnöll developed the single storey building at ground level as a „knot“. the duality represented by the space of motion and the landscape space remained a constant throughout the richly varied design process. an experiment discussed with the client dealt with the theme, of introversion and the conscious enjoyment of the landscape. the living area was organised in a ring form and oriented towards an internal atrium. a second narrow intermediate or infrastructure zone formed a filter to the landscape. it was only on walking outside that this was revealed as something special
the car lives here too
the further development of the concept lead to the interpretation of the garage as a bay in the road and of living as an extension of the landscape with a building envelope that is transparent on all sides. the border or infrastructure zone between the garage (with room for four vehicles) and living was ultimately given the spatial form of nine, geometrically identical hollow bodies each measuring 2.4 by 2.4 metres. the spatial modules, some of which are lit from above, contain private areas such as bathrooms, dressing rooms as well as storage space. the spatial continuum between the living and sleeping areas is permeable at both edges and establishes a direct (visual) connection between the car and the terraces.
the cow watches
the steel columns that carry the roof element (that is a metre thick at the centre) are almost entirely integrated in the wooden spatial modules. thus the vertically facetted glass wall does not appear like a space-shaping external shell, but like an airy curtain. the „hovering“ exposed concrete ceiling slab allows the gaze to roam to the mountain panorama and the sky, the floor - made both inside and outside of mastic asphalt with dolerite as an additive provides a transition to the meadow. farms and the edges of the woods form striking points in the landscape space. from the south to the northwest the mountain panorama extends from the osterhorn group across the tennen and hagen ranges, the göll massif and the zinkenkogel to the untersberg. the exposure of the object and subject - depending on the view out of or into the glazed house - is regulated by the sliding black external curtain. the permeability of the rustling woven material and the different light situations allow various degrees of filtering. carefully framed views on all three sides, and terraces with different degrees of closure and exposure position and shift accents, in accordance with diurnal and seasonal rhythms. the atmosphere in the interior is characterised by a general lack of personal objects. the spatial modules are printed with graphic black and white motifs of coniferous forests. inverted and with the colours reversed this dense woodland extends from the light grey exposed concrete ceiling to the black floor. a mental effort is needed to correct the visual perception of the eye. the graphic character of the living area expands through the „glass curtain“ towards the terrace and the meadow. this openness and permeability is assisted by the delicate nature of the furniture. weightless classics such as gio ponti's „superleggera“ or bruno mathsson's table with split legs as well as roland rainer's stadthalle chair can be positioned differently in the space.
cautious contact with the terrain
the two clients were delighted by the distant views and the horizon, but the architects also gave the building a focus on the nearby. the seasons, the quality of light, the weather - fog, rain, sun, wind and storm - are perceptible within the protection offered by the house. five light shafts accentuate the extensive flat volume of the building with its planted roof. this volume - as stable as a spirit level - presses itself into the slope at the southern corner, while at the north it clearly separates itself from the meadow. the house makes contact with the slightly sloping site without changing it by means of excavation or earthworks. whereas the buildings of lois welzenbacher, for example, react to the topography and make it part of the presentation, here the apparent lack of reaction to the landscape assures its independence. at the end what remains is the (culture) landscape and man as a guest.
|
