2015
Antivilla - Krampnitzsee - Germany
The plot was offered for a 90sqm single family home but it already contained 465 m2 building. The architect decided to renovate the old building instead of demolishing it. The idea behind it was to minimize the expenses of the construction and keep the m2 that the plot had already to offer.
By keeping the old building, many costs were avoided -such as paying the land price for a single family home (90sqm), dealing with the demolition costs and paying the expenses of the insulation. In fact, using the existing concrete shell allows you to use the insulation that was already in the preexisting structure. The Antivilla has no internal walls except for the bathroom. The architect decided to have no internal walls except for the bathroom because, in general, he doesn’t need more than one room to live. It’s enough for one place to provide for all the functions equally. In an interview, Arno Brandlhuber says that “we are much too stuck in the belief that our living spaces have to resemble those of our parents – even if we thought we had detached from them after a few tough processes”.
The other aspect which makes this villa appropriately included in this particular strategy category is the prominent feature of the redesign in the openings in the gable ends of the building. By keeping the preexisting structure, the architect prevented the use of new material except when it was structurally needed. The main task of the conversion was the renewal of the roof. The former triangular truss construction with its corrugated asbestos cover was replaced with a flat roof featuring a dramatically cantilevered rain-spout.
The “artistic” openings on the first floor reveal not just the lake view on one side and an oak tree on the other, but also its own brickwork which was built by a bricklayer apprentices from Mozambique who came to the GDR back when the factory was originally built.
[project selected by Laura Bonalume]