Keinwand

The wall has long been perceived as a barrier. The wall had been separating the people of Berlin for decades. City buildings are essentially the same walls, barriers. Often they prevent the free movement of a person, hide the sky from him.

This project drew inspiration from the reinforcing mesh, usually laid in a monolithic structure, in concrete walls. It is rhythmic and semi-permeable: large cells are replaced by smaller ones, and then turn into vertical stripes.

In addition, when the Berlin Wall (rigid, opaque) was destroyed, reinforcement was visible in the concrete structure: these glimpses symbolized hope and renewal. We took this beautiful image as a basis.

We decided to reinterpret the concept of the house and present the usual design of a multi-apartment residential building in the form of a Corten steel grid, to which all communications, staircases, elevator shafts, etc. are connected. Several pillars are topped with mini wind turbines that generate energy; some are topped with lamps that provide lighting.

The house becomes an openwork sculpture, a kind of art object that will easily fit into any urban context thanks to its semi-permeable structure.

Social housing should not only be affordable, but also adaptable. First, the object has three typologies: 1) a separate building that could be placed in a field, at an abandoned railway station, etc.; 2) built into the ends of an existing house as an extension/addition; 3) superstructure that is above an existing house or to the facade of an existing house. This is a kind of way of renovating old buildings.

Second, the object has a flexible functional program. Each resident will be able to choose the required format of cell-apartments: two-room, three-room, etc. The cell structure is assumed to be made of translucent material (for example, frosted glass). Thus, an individual image of each house will be formed with standardized cell solutions since the number and configuration of cells will differ.

The translucent material of the cells will give each resident the opportunity to individualize their own home – interiors that are different from each other will together form a unique mosaic of color spots. Social housing will no longer be stigmatized and associated with depression and decline but will become a viable urban unit, a symbol of harmonious unity and the coexistence of differences. This is how the house will arise as a single non-wall.

Social housing will no longer be stigmatized and associated with depression and decline, but will become a viable urban unit, a symbol of harmonious unification and coexistence of differences. So the house will arise as a single Non-wall.