CONNECTING
PEOPLE
STEG AM WASSER — Berlin (D)
The Dahme waterscape is of exceptional quality and beauty. Here, natural space, recreational quality and also industrial charm are combined with the calm and serenity that rivers generally radiate.
To stage this unique natural quality to the maximum is the central design idea of the residential building:
A large-scale, eight-meter-deep jetty in front of the actual building leads the individual apartments very close to the water – so that apartment and water seem to merge.
The footbridge is a hybrid of private balconies or open spaces and at the same time a development element. Thus, the footbridge stands for views, leisure, recreation, pleasure, enjoyment, but also for social interaction, community and a sense of togetherness. One can say that this footbridge is the building, because it shapes the building visually and also in terms of content. It is both the face and the soul of the building.
All of the apartments are designed to be interspersed and therefore have two points of the compass. This allows the residents to intensively experience daytime but also seasons.
The building with its 28 residential units in the Berlin district of Grünau has four full floors and one stacked floor. In the center of the house is the vertical access, which is directly connected to the walkway. The footbridge, which is set back about 2 meters from the building, leads the residents not only directly to their apartments but also to their spacious outdoor areas with their spectacular view over the river. The individual levels of the footbridge have different floor plan layouts. This results not only in a variety of vertical views, but also in an interesting and ever-changing play of shadows.
All the residential units of the building are designed to be interconnected.
Two sky directions
All the residential units of the building are designed to be interconnected and thus each have two sky directions: the north-east side of the footbridge and a south side, which is equipped with large-format plant troughs for free planting by the residents. Thus the inhabitants must do without neither the remarkable view to the Dahme in the north-east nor a light-giving south-west side. By means of generous folding-sliding walls, the apartments can be opened to the outside spaces to the maximum – interior and exterior thus combine to form a single unit and the entire depth of the walkway becomes an integral part of the living landscape.
