Housing Above Existing Parking Lots | Henner Herrmanns

"Just as the houses are built on stilts in Venice, the houses designed by us shall be elevated in places where there are existing parking lots. The housing can easily be installed, and because it’s a pre-fabricated design, a pop-up village could be built quickly" Henner Herrmanns comments his contribution heading to the 15th International Architecture Exhibition in Venice.

Not only now the situation in the housing market is exacerbated. Even in recent years, far too few apartments have been built in the inexpensive segment. So affordable housing must be re-implemented as soon as possible. Prof. Henner Herrmanns sees in wooden structures the excellent building material which is ideally suited to its pre-fabrication and aesthetic radiance to build quickly houses, also just because of the massive immigration. He proposes in his feasibility study to create in Koblenz on the area of the university a prototype as a superstructure of the parking lot in front of the university. Here prefabricated modular components should be used for affordable housing. The feasibility study is based on the fact that due to the high prefabrication wooden structures allow a fast, efficient and economical construction process.

In addition to shortening the construction period the modular design allows a big flexibility. Finally, the planning for this multi-storey residential building is transferable to other plots. The supporting structure allows adaptable floor plans in all three residential floors, which can be divided individually via light partitions. The supporting structure consists of composite floors made of wood and concrete. The three upper floors have common areas. Access is via a staircase. If required a lift can be installed. A solar system on top of the roof for heating support is planned. The building is designed for refugees and foreign students. Prof. Henner Herrmanns & Hung Nguyen suggest to build 4 houses in the first phase.