The apartment building with 9 apartments on Brimanssgasse str. in Basel is placed just a few meters away from one of the most famous landmarks of the city – Spalentor.
The siteis built as a part of perimeterblockwith firewalls on both sides, a south street facade directly on the sidewalk line without front garden and a north rear facade facing the garden.
The concept was for an urban facade designed as a wall facing the street and a glazed facade completely open to the garden. All apartments are planned with a continuous living space, illuminated on both sides. The apartments on the basement ground floor are planned as maisonettes. The floor on the ground floor is 1.2m above the street in order to avoid visibility from the street.
The designof the buildingreacts sensitively to the surrounding context. Since there is no buffer zone between the street and the living space, the street facade is planned on different levels, which contribute to the spatial depth effect. The continuous ribbon windows are surrounded by a metal window frame. Within this window frame there are individual additional window frame elements or "window boxes", also made of metal. Due to the exact planning of these elements, the facade gains a lot of distance between the interior and exterior with little thickness of the wall.
In the interior, the concept of a box is represented by the wooden framing of the windows.The street facade is clad with darkfacing bricks. This choice of material emphasizes the urban nature of the facade. The courtyard facade, on the other hand, is completely glazed, so that as much daylight as possible can be drawn into the rooms and to reinforce the relationship to the garden area. The fronts of the floorslabs on this side are designed as prefabricated concrete elements. The horizontal lines of the slabs are repeated in the form of the oversized handrails of the window and the balcony railings. The facade is thus shaped by its horizontal geometry. Due to the tight urban structure, the modest garden area is complemented by the roof terrace. This is divided into two zones, a covered seating area and an open lounge. The roof terrace is available to all residents and is accessible via the lift.
Material Used :
1. Baumgartner Fenster – Windows system SA-HMi-67/67
2. Brillux – Paints/ Colors - Interior colors RAL 9016 - Q3
3. Greisser AG – External shutters - Solo zip
4. Jäggi AG Türen & Schreinerei – custom made sliding doors with the height oft he room
5. Sanitas Troesch AG – Sanitary appliances - Arwa twin
6. Sto AG – Brick Facade - StoBrick Gläzend 390 (dark grey)
