This three-storey apartment building in Berlin provides
the capacity for change through its form of construction,
which allows the expansion and contraction of individual
dwellings within the same structure. The building is
designed on a grid using a reinforced concrete frame. A
central staircase divides the building into two halves, each
of which is unobstructed apart from a few columns and a
service duct. The size of one ‘half and design of the common
hallway with its multiple doors allows each floor to
have two, three or four differently sized apartments. The
architects show a variety of possible layouts, testing their
design for long-term flexibility. The plans indicate the spatial
division into ten units, but the number of apartments
could be as low as six or as high as twelve.
At a later stage, two adjoining units could be merged
into one large unit (with one of the entrance doors blocked
up) or a smaller unit could be enlarged by taking space
off another, though the latter adaptation would depend
on tenancies. The advantages in this form of flexibility lie
not only in its potential to respond to its user’s periodic
changing requirements but also in the long-term adaptability
offered by the dwelling within a changing market
situation.
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