Arch. Myriam B. Mahiques Curriculum Vitae

Monday, November 1, 2010

The house of the month in Frankfurt, selected by Architectural Record


¨If you ask Georg Kratzenstein, project architect for Frankfurt, Germany based Meixner Schlueter Wendt Architects, to describe the house his firm designed for a family of five in the town of Kronberg im Taunus, he will tell you it’s a “completely normal, pitched-roof house, built on a slope, where the mass of the garden floor has been subtracted.” He will also tell you it can also be perceived as a “dynamic, hovering vehicle or flying object.”
Stealth bomber or angled-roof dwelling, the house meets local regulations set by the housing authorities of this 13th century town, as well as fulfilling the needs of the couple and three children who are proud to call the building home. Describing the house as normal, however, is a bit of a stretch.



At 3,500-square-feet, the three-story house is firmly embedded into its sloped site, which overlooks a valley with a densely forested hill in the distance. The ground floor, is a basement bunker used as a guest apartment. This submerged level gets natural light through a lightwell above. The first floor, or “garden” floor contains kitchen and living areas, and is, according to Kratzenstein, “a composition of boxes and levels embedded into the topography of the site, and glazed all around to make the transition between living area and orchard lawn as seamless as possible.” Then there’s the top floor, an aluminum-composite clad wedge that seems to hover above the ground.¨

Excerpt from Ingrid Spencer´s article. All pictures posted at Architectural record.com. Keep on reading:

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