This concept for an apartment building on the outskirts of Vienna – built in an existing gap between buildings – will have the ground floor level slightly set back from the street while the upper levels form a continuous front with the other building. As a result the roofed entrance area is inviting yet protected from the elements. The foyer opens up its urban surroundings and continues them in the form of topographical elements and ramps while at the same time enabling diagonal access to the courtyard and garden. The typology of the ground plan of the four-in-hand building results from the attractiveness of the north-south alignment of the quoins, each of which house two flats.

Open loggias as well as the generously laid out ground plan characterise the building. In order to increase the unit’s plasticity the gutter line is partially raised by means of bays and dormers. A fractal pattern of irregular window openings on both the southern and northern façades creates differing valences of the interior atmosphere and invokes different lines of vision and acts as a filter between interior and exterior. The façade thus becomes an identity forming graphical element and is a purely functional result from the very specific relationship between the apartments and their environment.