IDK Apartment Renovation / Demo Working Group

closed

Text description provided by the architects.This project deals with the renovation of an apartment in a large-scale residential complex from the 1970s in the outskirts ofCologne. The apartment is inhabited by a family of four. With 82 m2 of living space, it is small by today‘s standards. Nowadays, 47 m2 per person are average in Germany. Our objective is to bring the apartment in line with contemporary spatial expectations. This invariably led to questions about standards of living, appropriateness and adaptability of existing structures in transformation scenarios.The apartment’s layout is defined by two distinct halves: one harboring the individual rooms and the other dedicated to family living. We kept the general layout of the apartment, but removed all non load-bearing walls. In their place, sliding partitions were introduced. The sliding doors are based on a system of T-slot aluminum profiles, typically employed in mechanical engineering. This transformation allows the apartment to assume different configurations: with the walls open, the children‘s rooms expand into the living space and the bathroom doubles as an open laundry room. Throughout the day, there is a constant flux between privacy and openness.