Sonnenwinkel House / Carolus Zschieschang

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The extension contributes to condensing a grown settlement in a central location in the growing city ofLeipzig. The aim was, to harmonize the urban location of the old building with modern housing concepts and sustainable construction methods and materials.The facade of the ground floor consists mostly of floor-to-ceiling glazing. The wooden columns and the concrete base are covered with aluminum panels on the outside. On the ground floor level, a space has been created, that is oriented and opened to the garden and offers the maximum amount of transparency and connection between the inside and the outside. This space is flexibly usable and can be opened to the garden by a wide lift and slide door.Text description provided by the architects.The existing residential building has been extended by a two-story annex. The extension hides behind the old building and surprises visitors when they walk around it to reach the original entrance when the upper floor cantilevers and seems to levitate from behind the existing building.The space on the upper floor offers reduced transparency and is used as a bedroom. Another wide lift and slide door opens the way from the bedroom to the balcony, from where the users have an overview of the three sides of the garden.The mostly opaque outer walls of the upper floor are covered by pre-greyed and vertically arranged larch boards of different widths and depths, which induce a liveliness of the facade. Depending on daytime and weather conditions, the facade exerts a different effect on its observer. This effect is underlined by a dark accentuation of the grooves of the single larch boards, which causes a subtle contrast.The wooden construction is visible on the inside, and some elements, like the columns, are kept with their natural color, while other elements, like the beams, are painted transparent white to brighten up the rooms while keeping the wood texture visible.