Atelier | bfa I büro für architektur

Architects: bfa büro für Architektur,
Stuttgart

A small, cottage-like dwelling house built around the turn of the
turn of the century in Überlingen on Lake Constance, is to be extended to include a sculptor's and painter's studio. Unfortunately, the development plan for this scenic area only allowed for a small building window and thus considerably restricted the area to be newly built on. From a space-saving point of view, a cuboid was built exactly along the building boundary line on the east side of the old building in timber construction on a solid basement floor, which can be accessed both via its own entrance from the outside and via a ground-floor connection to the old building. The usable space of the studio is distributed over three levels, with the studio occupying the central position due to its dimensions. The workshop is located in the basement and a second storage room on the upper floor. On the outside, the building presents itself as calm and closed with its precisely cut window surfaces, but on the inside and towards the old building, the monolithic form dissolves into structural elements. In a kind of metamorphosis, the room extension combines with the existing building without giving up its structural independence as a clearly defined extension. Alternating visual relationships between old and new and the nearby surroundings support this dynamic spatial concept. The façade material is pre-patinated sheet copper, which emphasises the solidity of the ashlar. Inside, where the body has a flowing, dynamic character, the architects used mainly wood as the exterior material. Cellulose was blown into the hollow spaces of the construction for thermal insulation. The conversion time was extremely tight, as the house remained inhabited during the construction work. Also, the overgrown garden should not be affected more than necessary. To achieve this, prefabricated elements were used for the timber frame construction, which reduced the total construction time on site to a few weeks. macos/deepLFree.translatedWithDeepL.text