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House S

The transformation of the roof in a building site demonstrates how to restore in a creative way a building of the Sixties.

This specific construction assignment is a central topic of today's urban development: the roof area as building site, which can be covered with independent buildings—urban compression by utilization of roof areas as valuable building land. Thereby the architect is always confronted with the question of how to handle with the existing building in a contemporary sense; in the case of House S a 60´s bungalow, built by interior architect Wilfried Hilger for himself and his family.

Due to space limitations the new owners, a family of four, decided to heightening the existing bungalow and furthermore to renovate the basic structure. To keep the bungalow's typical character three single boxes were placed on a cantilevered flat roof, and connected only by a glass corridor.

The new structure creates zones with different qualities: in the south-west a meadow with a small apple tree, in the north a stone paved courtyard with a pine tree and in the east a roof terrace with a magnolia. The master bedroom, dressing room and bathroom are located in one of the new boxes. The two other boxes function as personal living room and home office for the landlords.

In the ground floor nearly all the walls and installations were removed, so that a large living room could be created. An open kitchen was placed in the midst of that living area. This floor additionally includes the children's rooms with dressing room and bathroom. In the basement a guest room and an additional apartment is located. By the usage of triple glazed windows and highly effective insulation an energetically optimized building could be realized.

House S, Wiesbaden, Germania
Architects: CHRIST.CHRIST. associated architects, Roger Christ
Design team: Roger Christ, Ronni Neuber, Julia Url
Structural engineering: Schmitt + Thielmann und Partner
Construction supervision: CHRIST.CHRIST. associated architects
Plant engineering: Elektro Wintermeyer GmbH, Stefan Florschütz GmbH
Landscape design: CHRIST.CHRIST. associated architects
Built area: 210 m²
Construction phase: 06/2010—07/2011

This specific construction assignment is a central topic of today's urban development: the roof area as building site.

The new volumes define a suspended garden, the terrace is enriched by a pine tree

All the original walls were demolished in order to create a large living room and a kitchen

The architects cutted the existing roof in order to realise an external courtyard

The garden-roof turns into an open movie theatre during summer nights

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House S

The transformation of the roof in a building site demonstrates how to restore in a creative way a building of the Sixties.

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