Antivilla

While at the former & first Prussian, then nazi and finally soviet & barracks in Krampnitz nearby Potsdam war films such as „Enemy At The Gates' or "Inglourious Basterds' were shoot, they also were the setting of another drama that newspapers simply called "Krampnitz Affair'. The State of Brandenburg tried to cancel the sale of the Krampnitz Barracks when discussions about the too low sale's amount started. A noisy public argument between politicians and the investors who intended a large scale housing project followed and is without a decision so far.

While the Potsdam area lacks of flats, the area around Krampnitz became a villa settlement for Berliners that missed countryside qualities in the metropolis and advertisings for „Villas' mushroomed all along the roads. One under numerous sites that were rededicated to housing area was the 1.500 m² compound of former  GDR publicly owned enterprise "VEB Obertrikotagen Ernst Lück' that produced underwear at site. The land development plan allowed three detached houses of each 150 m² with the three existing buildings on site way bigger then that. But while land around got more expensive each and every day nothing happened at "Ernst Lück'. The small compound had kind of its own "Krampnitz Affair', a long going law suit between former owners who got the small factory in the confusing days after the GDR stopped existing.

Construction - Materials and Structure Property questions were not all solved when planning for "Ernst Lück' began but from the beginning it was quite clear that the existing buildings should be kept instead of three new houses. And conversions should oppose standards, aesthetics and economical backgrounds of the „Villas' around. The former office and storage building of "Ernst Lück' was selected to be transformed into a "Antivilla'. Its idea is to achieve this with only some small changes. Office walls were taken out, the rotten roof was worn out and a new concrete core contains toilettes, showers and a sauna that heats the whole building. Instead of the usual insulation procedure the goal of "Antivilla' is to challenge standards. Together with engineers Pichler a climatic concept for the building was developed that divides space with transparent PVC-curtains into differentiated temperature zones. Step by step the zones get colder the further they are away from the heating concrete core. So in wintertime it might only be possible to use the first zone surrounding the core while during the other seasons the usable space grows to its maximum of 510 m².