Housing Suedquartier

Client

Building Insurance of the Canton of St. Gallen

Task

Housing

Staff Members

Frank Roskothen, This Dormann

Status

Competition design 2017

The existing context is characterised by small solitary buildings, large-scale apartment buildings and row buildings along the Oberseestrasse. The design reacts to this heterogeneous construction method, which is typical of the area, by placing the buildings along the edges of the site. The street spaces are enclosed and a spacious green courtyard is created, in which the majority of the beautiful trees are preserved.

The basic building block of the development is not a simple prismatic structure, but a volume aligned on several sides with differently pronounced projections and recesses. This makes it possible to respond to the different urban situations. A continuous pedestal accompanies the street and defines the address formation. The recessed components of the upper floors segment the volume and convey with their rhythm to the small-scale neighbourhood. The buildings reaching into the courtyard shape it and create niches. The structured and disintegrated peripheral buildings thus rather give the impression of a sequence of solitary buildings with a variety of orientations and outlooks that create identity. The solid expression of the buildings is supported by the inscription of the private exterior spaces in the building structures.