c-b-a - BERLIN HOLZHUAS
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BERLIN HOLZHUAS

c-b-a

Housing  /  Future
c-b-a
New housing development for a Berlin district which has recently become a destination for a large number of new comers, foreign and German alike: artists, students, professional as well as families. The new housing complex will complete of an existing block completing its missing portion while integrating, at the same time, with the existing building.

The new complex on the street is split into two parts in a fashion that is reminiscent of famous architectural precedents, like the Casa del Girasole, for instance, designed by Luigi Moretti in Roma after World War two.
The two side/wings are connected by a 'glass bridge' that stands as an attempt to mediate the different heights of the existing building on the east and the west side of its perimeter into one. The two wings feature a different height and a different roof profile.

The floor plan allow for a certain flexibility in having different size of apartments depending on the need of the dweller: from studio to three bedroom apartments
The new building is developed in partnership with Damiani holz, the leading company for new wood building in Italy.

The structural frame, developed by Pirmin Jung, foresees a system of post and beam cross laminated timber frame for the five levels above ground,
Sitting on a pour in place concrete foundation.
Elevator shaft and open staircase are foreseen in poured concrete.

Why the sudden interest in wood? Compared with steel or concrete, CLT, also known as mass timber, is cheaper, easier to assemble, and more fire resistant, thanks to the way wood chars. It’s also more sustainable. Wood is renewable like any crop, and it’s a carbon sink, sequestering the carbon dioxide it absorbed during growth even after it’s been turned into lumber.

Demographers predict that the planet’s urban citizenry will double in the next 30+ years, increasing the demand for ever-taller structures in ever-denser cities. Whether architects and construction firms build those towers from unsustainable materials like steel and concrete or employ new materials like CLT could make a huge difference in the Earth’s health. Put differently, the world’s urban future may just lie in its oldest building material.

The finished building will be conscious of the ongoing need of saving energy.

It will have a very high energy performance (40kwh/m per year) with very high living standard in all department: savings, safety, value,
Comfort, health and sustainability.

Credits

 BERLINO
 PEHJ84 GMBH
 01/2018
 1200 mq
 c-b-a
 paolo conrad bercah
 DAMIANI holz
 Tobia Goetz (Pirmin Jung) Bergmeister

Curriculum

c-b-a stands for context of bare architecture, which means that we aim to find the bare life of architectural form, namely a form stripped of the prevailing rhetoric of the day.
Since its inception c-b-a has been involved with the design of a number of building types, ranging from public library to museum, school complexes and stadium, with the majority of the executed work revolving around the production of office buildings and housing.
As of late, c-b-a has been increasingly involved in a number of activities engaging with the city of Berlin. These include the design a number of contemporary housing complexes in Berlin (in partnership with the leading Italian company in the construction of wood technology) that acknowledge the new social and living conditions (like the increasing atomization of the traditional family structure) or the a new model of living/working units that may provide a provisional solution to the on-going refugee emergency.


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