Hans Kollhoff

The almost square lot of 12’000 square meters is subdivided and served by internal roads for the residents. The two blocks are raised by 1.4 meters and bounded by a retaining wall of brick in order to improve living conditions on the ground floor and create a more private setting. A 90-cm-high privet hedge creates a barrier against prying eyes. The design of the garden is simple and discreet: clumps of birch trees and flowering shrubs. Cars are parked in the internal roads. Each of the blocks is made up of eight compact four-story buildings, oriented toward the surrounding fabric of detached houses. Each building contains eight apartments.

The housing units are organized in a traditional way. Each building is served by a central access: the plan is symmetrical, making possible a mirror solution, depending on the orientation of the building. This means that the conservatories face south, southeast or southwest. Importance has been attached to creating a pleasant situation at the entrance, and one that is decidedly representative. The grandiose dimensions of the staircases, the wooden floorboards in the entrance area, the choice of a handsome facing of artificial stone, the natural wood of the handrails and the doors leading into the apartments and an attentive design of the details convey an impression that great pains have taken over the construction.