Baumweissling housing
Cadonaustrasse, 7000 Chur
Competition, 1st Prize 2019
Canton of Graubünden, Building, Transport and Forestry Department BVFD
Asga Pensionskasse Genossenschaft
Sima Breer Landschaftsarchitektur GmbH, Winterthur
Borgogno Eggenberger + Partner AG, St.Gallen
Amstein+Walthert AG, St.Gallen
The new residential development on the Cadonau-Areal in Chur pays great attention to integration into the structure of the existing building and open spaces. The building volumes tie in with the large forms in the surrounding area. These include not only the Waldhaus Clinic in the east, but also buildings such as the Kantengut retirement home and the teacher training college in the southwest. The irregularly shaped new buildings contrast with the strict geometry of the clinic complex and acquire their own character. With their narrow sides, the buildings relate to the small-scale buildings in the neighbourhood. The large volumes have the advantage that, despite the high density of the new development, they allow for generous, contiguous green spaces. This preserves one of the main ideas of the existing workers’ housing: The ideal of living in a park-like environment. More
The project envisages a purely residential use in the peripheral location on the outskirts of the town. The development consists of 106 apartments with 1.5 to 5.5 rooms. Thus, it offers a home to people in different stages of life. Most of the apartments are dual aspect. The loggias often form an area together with the dining and living areas. This creates exciting spatial constellations and diagonal views. The differently shaped structures offer a variety of variations in plan. What all the apartments have in common is their relationship to the outdoor space. The loggias have a cantilevered area that brings the surrounding greenery close to the interiors. The apartments offer different views of the park-like surroundings. The fact that some of the apartments are offset from each other by half a storey results in a careful staggering of the heights of the buildings. This is responsible for both the embedding in the topography and the optimal sunlight for the apartments.
The individual buildings have efficient access. They are designed as 6- and 7-unit buildings and equipped with spacious staircases. Skylights and small atriums allow plenty of daylight into the centre of the deep buildings. Meeting zones are created, which culminate in the communal terraces on the top floors.
The buildings, encased in a delicate timber cladding, blend harmoniously into the surrounding green space. The living, organic material changes over time, just as the landscape around it changes. The facades consist of vertical wooden slats with a silver-grey glaze, in which distinctive oxblood-red window frames are set. The parapets of the attic storeys form a kind of crown that closes off the building at the top. As a material, the wood stands for a rural style of building, while the portrait-format windows have an urban character. The development thus reflects its location on the outskirts of the city, at the transition to the open landscape.
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