Address
Lochau, A

Client
Sabrina Kern

The architects designed the family house in Lochau for an unmarried mother. It stands on a large site belonging to the parents of the client. The house is based on a simple but highly practical concept.
The ground floor contains the car parking space, which can also be used for other functions, along with the ancillary spaces, a small study and an additional bathroom so a guest could also be accommodated here.
The living area is at the first level. One could almost speak here of a single room concept as the spaces flow into one another. Only the bedrooms are separated, the kitchen and bathroom are placed in an adjoining cube. In this way the major spatial configuration is cleanly and clearly developed and is not overlaid by service spaces. The fact that the architecture concentrates on the view of the lake is given the favourable nature of the site, self-explanatory.
The double skin facade concept is most interesting.
It resulted from considerations on how the building should relate to outdoor space, but is also a result of the necessity for screening and sun protection. You can certainly look out from inside a simple glass box but you can also see into it. The prefabricated glass box, which was erected in a week, now stands behind a grid of timber elements made on site. The blades of this cladding are relatively dense at ground floor level, further up the building they open up and placed slightly varying angles.
The entire architectural tension evident in the small house, both externally and internally, is reflected in these two facades and their highly different qualities. It seems almost like a statement and refutation, an inherent built contradiction but one which is obviously easy to live with it.

Planning
be Lochau

Project Architect
Rainer Huchler

Site Area
706 m²

Area of Building
138 m²

Net Floor Area
103 m²

Building Volume
560 m³

Commencement Of Planning
1995

Commencement Of Work
1995

Completion
1996