Kaspar Weyrer Strasse
Timber Housing Complex in Innsbruck
2013–2015
Introduction
The design for the new housing development is inspired by the urban grain of the surrounding urban area. Instead of a “super block” single volumes with adjacent open spaces are characterizing the development. The idea was to create a model for modern and diverse urban living.
Common spaces enabling social contacts for the inhabitants are central to the concept. E.g. exterior staircases serve as meeting points and semi-private / semi public spaces. In front of the apartments and in the spaces between the different apartments, the inhabitants can meet, take a rest, play or do gardening. All flats are accessible from the exterior spaces and all front doors are facing exterior spaces.
Technical details
Diözese Innsbruck
Photos by Lukas Schaller
All apartments are oriented to east or west. The two-story solutions on the upper levels of the structure offer additional spatial qualities. Each apartment has at least one private outdoor area such as west-facing gardens on ground level and west- or east-facing terraces on the upper floors. The measurements of the ground floor apartments are 4 x 13.85 meters. The development comprises five 2-room apartments (about 52 sqm), four 2,5-room apartments (about 65 sqm) and one studio flat (about 35 sqm).
Material use considers standards of the local ecological architecture. The prefabricated supporting walls consist of cross-laminated timber, external ventilated insulation and silver fir cladding. The terrace surfaces are covered with arolla pine duckboards while the flat roofs are green roofs.
The conceptual simplicity is consistently sustained by the materiality of the inner skin of the structure consisting of unrefined timber walls, sanded floors, glass and tiling. Interior staircases and kitchen worktops are beech wood, pull-out wardrobes with fronts of yellow through-dyed MDF, and insides of pine wood. Windows, parapets and other edges are made of oak.
