Wohlfahrt-Laymann Residence by Meixner Schlüter Wendt

Meixner Schlüter Wendt projected the Wohlfahrt-Laymann Residence using the existing building as the initial point for further planning.

The Wohlfahrt-Laymann Residence is a simple, traditional “cottage in the country“ that has been dissolved, transformed and simultaneously fortified. The inner house is used very efficiently and becomes a “wooden insert” within a solid shell that represents an optumum upgrade of the building respecting the original wooden walls.

The concept is developed out of the necessity of an extension and optimisation of the existing building. The new shell build around the house creats a new interior and intermediate space. The inner house is “broken open” where ligh or space is required, projecting onto the outer shell in the form of “light and space connections” and their perforated outlines on the facade, derived from the existing openings of the inner house. The roof on the inner house is opened. Complex and seemingly simple rooms alternate with each other.



The original cottage within is the site for a series of excavations and interventions that link it to the new exterior skin.The interior court for the front facade twists the ownership of the exterior and claims the yard for the double house. The cottage was also painted white to clear it of its past and renew it as near-artificial artifact of its previous self.

Architects Homepage: http://meixner-schlueter-wendt.de/