2012
Penthouse - Berlin - Germany

The Penthouse by Christof Mayer and Martin Heberle can possibly be an important contribution to the AAM exhibition, because of its architectural strategy - behavior. The reuse technique cannot be considered radical since it is an implementation on the roof of the warehouse in the Berlin neighbourhood of Wedding.
This kind of architecture makes develop an affermative attitude of the users towards the existing. In fact, the residents can change their “climate zone” according to the seasons.
For this aspect the architectural strategy used in this case is Behavior, since the users are required to participate during the building phase and then to change their daily habits.
So the participative role in the lifestyle of the inhabitants as the use of space changes along with the seasons. Solar energy is passively applied while curtains combined with natural ventilation keep out the heat.
The Penthouse in Berlin does not belong to a particular grade A of listed building which anyway would have been preserved, it instead is classifiable as a excellent prototype of everyday-architecture low-cost, low tech eco house.

[project selected by Giovanna Cacciola]

imagetext

Strategy

Category

Contributor

Architecture as Resource / Imprint