Unravel House, Berlin

UNRAVEL HOUSE - BERLIN 2007 Unravel House is situated in an area formerly devoted to parcels containing house, workshop & stable close to the centre of Berlin. These parcels are particular in that the houses sit back to back, side to side with each other and their large (400m2) garden courtyards face the street. The 100m2 turn of the century 2 storey rectangular box of a brick house is protected and integrated as the technical bathing / sleeping cupboard of the new 100m2 Living / Working volume. An old Stall and various derelict sheds were demolished leaving only the brick walls of the stall and a brick paved terrace shielded from the street by the existing garages. At the only side free from the constraints of neighbouring buildings, the Living / Working volume spreads out towards the western sun and engulfs the remains of the stall, unravelling the straight brick cordon. At the lower level the volume has reached its maximum extension whilst on the upper level it zigzags its way back reducing itself to meet the gable of the Bick volumes’ pitched roof. This folding of the upper volume is expressed in the roof which itself refers to the folding base of the GDR Television Tower on Alexanderplatz. The passage of sunlight will react differently throughout the day with the small white to grey irregularly glazed tiles and facetting of the façade, unravelling and dematerialising the brick cordon as the edges of the Living / Working volume become difficult to define.

UNRAVEL HOUSE - BERLIN 2007

Unravel House is situated in an area formerly devoted to parcels containing house, workshop & stable close to the centre of Berlin. These parcels are particular in that the houses sit back to back, side to side with each other and their large (400m2) garden courtyards face the street.

The 100m2 turn of the century 2 storey rectangular box of a brick house is protected and integrated as the technical bathing / sleeping cupboard of the new 100m2 Living / Working volume. An old Stall and various derelict sheds were demolished leaving only the brick walls of the stall and a brick paved terrace shielded from the street by the existing garages. At the only side free from the constraints of neighbouring buildings, the Living / Working volume spreads out towards the western sun and engulfs the remains of the stall, unravelling the straight brick cordon. At the lower level the volume has reached its maximum extension whilst on the upper level it zigzags its way back reducing itself to meet the gable of the Bick volumes’ pitched roof. This folding of the upper volume is expressed in the roof which itself refers to the folding base of the GDR Television Tower on Alexanderplatz.

The passage of sunlight will react differently throughout the day with the small white to grey irregularly glazed tiles and facetting of the façade, unravelling and dematerialising the brick cordon as the edges of the Living / Working volume become difficult to define.

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