IBA Hamburg

HOUSING COOPERATIVES

In the course of the IBA Hamburg 28 building groups have the opportunity to develop a home with an architectural firm from a pool of planning offices.
Our fictional assembly consists of large living communities in all conceivable constellations.
The house is intended to be an open framework that makes things possible, but is not neutral. It offers different spaces and creates relationships, both inside the house and to the outside.

The floors are not divided according to residential units, but according to use. Each level makes its own spatial offer, from which each apartment benefits. This creates a democratic and communicative structure. Democratic, because everyone has a share in all floors of the house. Communicative, because this division makes it possible to open up the rather public areas of the apartments to one another without affecting the more intimate areas.

Together with the cooperative, we intend to develop a communicative house that opens up options for us, creates relationships and enables community without forcing it. The degree of privacy increases towards the top, intimate nests rest on an open base. After all we need both: communal places and places of retreat in diverse relationships that we choose ourselves. Each family can configure the size of the apartment independently by determining the number of rooms and adapting it to their needs over the years. There is room for those who change: blended families, freelancers or parents of children who are now grown. Architecture should stimulate, encourage and support us in changing our living conditions. It should be a starting point and not an ending point.