Garden House and Raftsmen's House

In the enclosed garden there is the old farmhouse. Childhood memories of ruins spring to mind. The remaining outer walls create a large courtyard, into which the new building has been inserted. A house within a house. Two courtyards that connect to form one space beneath the new building. Directly adjacent to the former farmhouse, the opportunity arose to expand the site with the second section of the old raftsmen's houses, a semi-ruined house dating from the mid-16th century that originally served as overnight accommodation for the raftsmen. Today, there are three apartments accommodated.

The historical traces had been somewhat blurred. The new garden wall now traces the narrow alignment of the 'Haratzmüllerstraße', emphasizing the old threshold and receding to the level of the customs house gable. The new widening in front of it creates a square again. From here, the garden house is only visible as lush greenery protruding beyond the wall. Between the houses, a stairway leads down into the garden next to a terrace high above the river. The original raftsman's house contained several cooking areas, the remnants of which can still be seen. We also rebuilt a wooden conservatory that had long since been removed. Thus, the old walls ultimately became a unified whole, which we were able to combine into a space for concentrated work, cultural activities, and living, nestled in the large garden in the heart of the old town. Using existing structures in densely populated areas shows the natural path to our built future in terms of resource conservation and social sustainability.

The raftsmen's house itself has been restored with materials that are touchable through their tactile qualities: the lime for the plaster was slaked on site, the roof is covered with fiber cement shingles, the casement windows are made of larch, and the conservatory is clad with local fir slats. When exposing the plaster layers, we were astonished to discover floral frescoes on the south façade, which could be preserved as period windows. Since they were visible both in places along the pilaster strips and in the interstices, it's likely that the entire street side was once painted in extremely colorful ways. The historic brickwork of the Gardenhouse is interrupted on the north and south sides by a simple concrete structure. A surrounding concrete grid frames the historic mixed brickwork. The lack of insulation and the projecting facade create a purist concrete look. All surfaces of the house are finished in oak.