Residential Building LindeQuartier | CHRIST.CHRIST. Associated Architects

Mainz-Kostheim is the southernmost district of Wiesbaden, where the Main flows into the Rhine. A new urban quarter with 800 apartments is being developed on the former Linde AG site with a direct connection to the local mooring facilities.

The northern “backbone” of the quarter is a six-storey, closed development project that shields the residential area from the railway line and main road, forming a sharp edge around the local access road. The project involves three structures that house eight apartment buildings with 172 residential units.

The buildings are clad with clinker bricks on the bottom two storeys and feature a brightly rendered façade that matches the respective colour of the bricks. While the buildings are virtually identical, their different colours (brown, beige and grey) create great variety and appeal.

The rhythmical relief in the plasterwork breaks up the typical monotony of row structures. The render around the windows overlaps like scales, ensuring the horizontal and vertical division of the façade and creating a varied contrast of light and dark. As the render surfaces overlap at the top, there are no horizontal protrusions where water might collect and erode the material. So, the relief is very much shaped by the functional properties of the material.

A 50 cm high clinker wall forms a pedestal around the property, establishing a buffer zone between the building and the street. In the entrance areas, the wall mirrors the shape of the plaster relief to create a portal effect and highlight the entrances.

All the living spaces and outdoor seating areas face the river in the south and south-west. The ground-floor apartments have their own private gardens.

The new development project contains a nice mixture of privately financed and subsidised housing in a socially heterogeneous quarter. The portfolio of properties includes family apartments with a kitchen, bathroom and either 3, 4 or 5 additional rooms, as well as flats for senior citizens with a kitchen, bathroom and 2 additional rooms. The mixture of housing for families and senior citizens, arranged by storeys, allows several generations to live together in one harmonious community.