The location of the house respects the street lines formed by the Portheim villa and the opposite street frontage, with which the proposed front façade is parallel. Instead of a narrow pavement in front of the house, a five-meter wide arcade is proposed with entrances to the retail areas and the main entrance to the residential core with a covered pavilion. The pavement to Matthew Street is widened to provide space for potential seating in front of the café.
The aim of the layout was to orient the majority of the flats to the sunny facades and to have at least one room of each flat facing the courtyard and no flat having all rooms facing V Botanice Street. These assumptions are best met by two circulation cores – one facing V Botanice Street and the other in the center of the courtyard. The ground floor contains spaces for commercial units and a common arcade with entrances to the apartments in the south and west wings.
The intention behind the choice of the structural design and façade cladding materials was durability and low maintenance. The house should age with dignity and be a sophisticated neighbour to the surrounding houses even after 30 years of use.
The building is designed in monolithic reinforced concrete, based on a white bathtub. The ground floor envelope consists of stacked precast reinforced concrete units, columns, and lintels. Above the plinth of the building is an economically designed contact insulation system made of mineral thermal insulation. The building will be designed with almost zero energy consumption. We have chosen the route of geothermal boreholes in combination with a ground pump.
Rainwater would be used secondarily for irrigation of the roof gardens.
