Ice Loft | Köhler Architekten

A certain amount of skill and a high level of sensitivity in design and planning are required when attempting to integrate a new building into a historical ensemble. On the one hand, there is a risk that the building with its modern dimensions could seem out of sync with its surroundings; on the other hand, its features could be too antiquated, making it look pretentious. A problem the Hamburg-based Architects Köhler Architekten solved skilfully when designing the so-called "Ice loft" in the district of Ottensen: The classical façade structures of workmen's and bourgeois houses in the district were reinterpreted and their surface was covered with the modern HI-MACS® material, designed to give it a contemporary look.

Architect Florian Köhler says that passers-by often stop to let the façade of the new three-storey building work its magic on them. Although the building's dimensions and proportion are based on the houses of the surrounding properties from the 19th century, the choice of material shifts it into a new age: Using a glass staircase as a linking component, the architects staggered the structure - similar to the adjoining property - across a classical semi-basement and two residential storeys above it, then finished it with mouldings and a gable-end roof. The ceiling height of the ground floor is higher than that of the residential floors. Vertical ribbon glazing connects the two residential floors. In the style of the smooth and shiny white surfaces of the historical building, the architects chose shiny white façade panels made of imbued Alpine White HI-MACS® solid surface, giving the dynamically formed surface a distinctive.