RENOVATION AND EXTENSION OF A RESIDENTIAL HOUSE IN GRAZ

• Exterior Architecture
• Interior Architecture

The main emphasis in the conversion of this early nineteenth century house was to underline the historic diversity of the ornate facade that faces the representative street side and the rawness of the hidden courtyard side reflecting a typical Biedermeier building. The concept reinforces this central theme by preserving the ancient street facade with monochrome paint and by reinterpreting the backside, adding loggia-like cubes for outdoor living. This hybrid of existing and newly formed brings housing for students and young families into an urban context by generating an authentic building typology with creative apartment organization and generous free space in the courtyard. There are four housing units conceived for flat-sharing communities and three additional one-room flats. The apartment-mix and minimized centered service areas through flexible bathrooms and galleries with ladders to the rooftop, offer optimized uses for different identities of living. Drawing coherency through material and color, the entire complex shows co-living’s purpose as well as individualized possibilities through big terraces which can be enveloped in a mobile textile canvas. The transformation of the terraces by its user define the private and public proportions in the living space at the courtyard side. The building’s backside’s dynamic character and static impression of the historic front side interact as one entity.

• project name: G40
• function: Residential, Best of
• location: Graz, AUSTRIA
• client:
  • privat
• floor space: 435 m²
• number of floors: 2 + converted attic storey
• number of units: 7
• construction start: 05 / 2002
• completion: 11 / 2002
• project team:

  • Alexander Gruber
    Andreas Reiter, Bernd Steinhuber, Erhard Rathmayr, Martin Lesjak

• photographer: Paul Ott