House KI

The building site is located directly in the city of Roth. Located next to a busy street and traditional houses the owners wanted a design that was modern, simple, with lots of glass to connect the indoors with outdoors while still maintaining privacy from the busy street and the neighbors.

They loved the concept of a courtyard house, but the site was not big enough to create such a design.

We tried to adapt that concept by using the surrounding existing buildings as a base. The buildings formed a L-shape structure with no windows to the actual building site.
By placing the first floor parallel to the street and rotating the second floor 90 degrees to create another L-shape a courdyard could be formed in the middle.

The rotation of the 2nd floor also creates a covered outdoor space.

Designed for two adults with two childern the plan is a sensible easy arrangement.
Living room, dining room and kitchen are combined in a large open floor plan which is only devided by fireplace to separate the working/play area. The white wall of the fireplace functions as the screen for the home theatre eliminating the big TV in the living room.
Large glass sliding doors open the living room and kitchen to the outdoor and covered patio.

On the upper floor the two kids rooms and lage master bedroom are planned in such a way that the parents and children are reasonable seperated. The master bedroom has its own dressing area.

The exterior of the house can be divided into 2 building rectangles. One using materials like concrete, glass and stucco while the other uses mainly trespa panels with wood decor.
The west glass facade facing the busy street received an additional exterior layer consisting of moveable aluminium louvers to maintain privacy. The aluminium louvers can be completely closed so the view from the street is blocked if wanted.
The louvers also function as sunshades and can be set to different angles to optimize the level of natural light coming into the building while still blocking direct sunlight.
These louvers where also added to the second floor windows as sunshades.

The house has a geothermal heating and cooling system.