The house with a gable, known from countless children’s drawings, is the German archetype of housing. This typology creates the foundation of a surprisingly unconventional home for a couple that moved from a converted school auditorium back to the region of their childhood: To the green neighborhood next to the forests of Leipzig, with lush gardens and family homes that are facing the street with their gables.

The defining characteristic of the neighborhood was translated into a gabled residential building. However, this figure did not remain alone. In keeping with the motto “two are better than one”, the overall appearance of the new building is made up of two offset, narrow volumes.
This makes it possible to remain within the axes of the neighboring buildings, to react to the scale of the surroundings and at the same time to create the required spaces in a compact way. Instead of simple typification, the architectural design aims to transform the existing components in a way that an independent architecture is created. A clear and straightforward building with precise openings into nature. The views focus in particular on the forest to the east and the orchard to the west.

At first glance, the double gable and the round windows do not seem to fit in with the typical townscape of the suburban location. The façade, with its rough-sawn surface made of board-formed exposed concrete, seems to be closer to the forest than to the neighboring houses.
And yet these familiar proportions blend naturally into the architectural surroundings.
The house is accessed via a densely planted front garden. This acts primarily as an arrival zone between public space and privacy.

Behind the exposed concrete of the exterior walls, thermal insulation made of ecological and energy-efficient hemp limestone was applied on the inside. This hemp limestone was used for the first time in Germany for this project.
A warm, finely textured clay plaster on the walls and ceilings creates a connection between the differently proportioned rooms. For the flooring in the public areas, a shimmering green natural stone was chosen, which is also used in the sanitary rooms and showers. Natural oiled oak parquet was laid in the upper, private rooms.

The atmospheric lighting of the surrounding nature is falling through the finely structured round portal into the entrance. Like in a cave, these arched shaped doors and passageways continue throughout the house and create a connection between the open cooking and dining area -a reminiscence of the barrel vault of the school auditorium, where the owners previously lived in Leipzig’s city center. The living level of the new building is slightly elevated and surprises with a space that extends up to the roof. The private master area is situated on another intermediate level; a few steps above are the rooms for children, guests and working. Each room celebrates the individual view into nature and deliberately plays with the discrepancy between the elongated double shape of the house and the structure of rooms contrary to that.
This confusion is reinforced by two bracing walls in the interior, whose concrete has been left unplastered and rough-sawn to match the façade.

Building projekt: Duplex | new building of a family home in Leipzig-Portitz
Client: private
Completion: 2023
Photographer: Clemens Poloczek

Behind the railroad tracks, in the south of Leipzig, the new southern combined heat and power plant rises with its characteristic, colourful cubes. It is the first combined heat and power plant in Germany that is completely operated with hydrogen. The new objects are basically made up of purely technical features. They are, in a way, an oversized engine block. But that also means that they could not be integrated in their surroundings without any further measures, because of the partly listed and very high-quality buildings around it. Under these circumstances the “Stadtwerke Leipzig” launched a design competition, which we could gladly win with our contribution of a “ceramic continuation”. The idea was to translate the exposed brickwork of the historic buildings with their yellow, brown, and reddish clinker bricks onto the three new buildings. Despite the solely technical function, the materials used for the facades were meant to create a high-quality appearance that corresponds with the surroundings and existing buildings. The material is therefore also fired clay. It was realized as a curtain facade, consisting of glazed panels with a fine, irregular vertical structure. Just the ground levels are still made of clinker brickwork. Meanwhile, its, partly sloping, finish imitates the silhouette and form of the roofing on the opposite side and still manages to create a further relation with its surroundings while also remaining independent.

Building project: Leipzig cogeneration plant | Façade design of the plant buildings
Client: Stadtwerke Leipzig, in cooperation with Fichtner GmbH
Invitation to tender 2020
Completion: 2023

The basis of this seemingly new building is an existing single-family house of a GDR type from the 1960s. Through radical conversions, extensions and additions it was transformed into a new and contemporary residential building.
Still, the building retains its defining “roots”. These traces of the past can only be seen at second glance though. Based on the existing structures, the new concept includes elements of the former building while also fulfilling the requirements of a contemporary, tailor-made home for a family of four. The new house responds both to the existing property and to the surrounding buildings in its scale. All additional volumes are built as naturally renewable wooden constructions, some of which are visible inside.

Building project: House on a base | Conversion and extension of a DDR type house, Markkleeberg
Client: Private
Completion: 2020
Photographer: Bertram Bölkow

The idea was to create a “second glance” building; offering only little insights and not immediately revealing its size. The answer is a U-shaped building, arranged around an intimate courtyard. From the street, only a fraction of the building complex is visible. It is not until you enter the house that you begin to realize the scale of the building. The light-flooded foyer already reveals exciting views into the courtyard and the surrounding nature. Despite the open spatial contexts, very secluded and differentiated spaces of retreat and refuge have been developed. It is the contrasts, breaks and spatial surprises that give the house its value and make it so unique, varied and worth living in.

Building project: Green meander | new construction of a residential building in Leipzig-Holzhausen
Client: Private
Completion: 2014
Photographer: Werner Huthmacher, Viet Duc Nguyen
Photographer Artworks: Wolfgang Stahl

The neogothic St. Peter’s Church in Leipzig has, in addition to its sacred use, been booked as a venue for events more and more. But until now the church did not have enough restrooms. With the means of the neogothic era we inserted these restrooms cautiously and yet with a pinch of modernity into the listed context.
The old toilet facilities have been dismantled, the entirely outdated installations in the wall and floor have been replaced. Now, there are three restroom cabins in total, which are acoustically separated from each other by transom windows. The distinctive neo-gothic design features of the vault and the arched windows are being referenced in the new door elements. Traditional cement tiles, which can also be found in other parts of the church, were used for the floor.

Building project: Silent loo | vonversion and extension of adjoining rooms at St Peter’s Church Leipzig
Client: Ev.-Luth. parish of St Peter’s Church
Completion: 2013
Photographer: Martin Jehnichen