new facade for my house!

Briefing

1) Introduction/About the project
This project is about remodeling the facade of our house in Germany, Bavaria. The house is built on a 3000 sqm plot, building a green oasis within the small town. The house was built in 1988 by an architect reflecting an aquatic style.

The neighborhood that the house is in is a private housing area consisting of mainly detached and semi-detached housing. The overall environment around the house is quiet and with plentiful greenery.

We aim to preserve the structure of the house as it is. As parts of the facade are made of wood and have not been taken care of in the last 20 years, the facade needs a makeover. We aim thereby to improve the insulation of the renovated parts of the facade and exchange all windows. We also aim to change and upgrade the look and feel of the house to a more modern, but natural design language. The aquatic theme should not be maintained.

Our house is located in a (for a town) rather “wild” natural scenery. The garden has a natural pool, large trees, a lot of bushes and a wild lawn, the terraces are made of natural stones. We do not like overly “neat” gardens, but prefer some wilderness around us. The new facade should be integrated into this rather natural scenery and not become “overly modern” to feel like a foreign body.
As we are close to the Alps, we like in general alpine, rustic, craftsman styles of houses with a modern touch.

In general, we would want to give you creative freedom to work on this project, pls. Consider the references as work we like but not as a requirement to follow.

We wish you all the best in this project and look forward to your creativity and proposals!


2) Description of the property’s topography and climate
The floor plan of the house as well as drawings for the facade are attached in the briefing. We do not aim to change the floorplan and do not require you to work on it.

The plot of land is on a gentle downward slope starting from the front garden to the side garden. The construction of the house with the Semi-floors reflect the downwards-slope.

The climate in southern Germany reaches from ~30°C in summer to -15°C in winter times. A good insulation of the newly constructed parts of the facades is hence important.


3) Description of the building in general and the facade in special

The building is made of 4 main bodies which are connected: 1) The Garage Building, 2) The Main Building, 3) The Child Wing, and 4) The Living Wing.

The facade as you can see at the images is mainly made out of 2 different constructions and material concepts today:
“Top Areas”: a curtain-wall facing with 8cm of mineral wool, air space, and a wooden panel structure on the outside
“Bottom Areas”: Double walls, mineral wool between the 2 walls, and sandstone brickwork on the outside.
The roof as it is has on top of the red bricks solar panels installed. The roof shall not get touched and stay as it is.
The house also has 2 balconies, a large wooden “front balcony (south)” which should stay, as well as a small wooden “rear balcony (north)”, which should get teared down.

We aim to fully preserve the current floorplan and construction of the house. The roof should stay and the construction of the “Bottom Areas” of the facade built of double-walls should not get deconstructed. The “Top Areas” with the wooden panels shall get replaced though. The “front balcony (south)” is to stay, the “rear balcony (north)” should disappear. We plan a “new balcony (east)” to be built on top of the entrance door between the Garage Building and the Main Building.
While the “Bottom area” should not get deconstructed, it can of course get re-styled via painting or adding material, as long as the diffusion process of the wall does not get interrupted.
You are free in the selection of the new material for the Top Area. While we really like the the colour and atmosphere of natural wood, we still prefer material where maintenance procedures are limited. Hence, we aim to get rid of the wood on the whole building to not need to paint big parts of the building every 5-10 years. If you choose material that requires frequent maintenance please use it only selectively.

We aim to keep the garden wild, as it is today and thus do not require you to plan or design wider elements of the garden. Anyways the terraces, the walls in the garden, or the fence as constructive elements should get redesigned to fit to the new facade and design language. They can therefore get extended and adopted. Especially also we would aim for a new additional terrasse on the Western side of the house as a place for dining. Also for the terraces, we would prefer material close to nature and with limited maintenance requirements.


4) Main themes of the project

The main theme of the building should be modern, plain with natural elements that give the house a character of its own and allow it to be well integrated into its more natural garden and setting. Windows should (other than today) not be interrupted to let maximum light into the house. The architecture should focus on liveability of the inhabitants in the designed spaces with an emphasis on elegance and comfort.
Themes that the inhabitants of the house would like are those with earthier materials and potentially selected wood / wood-like elements:
Modern
Rustic, Alpine
Industrial Chic
While the house should get a unique design language, it should not be “overdone” to appear posh, rather elegant simple design language.

5) Project Related Material

- Current House Images
- Reference Images of styles we like
- Google Maps and Google Earth Screenshots
- Floorplans and profile drawings
- Current facade constructions
- UPDATE: floorplan uploaded as pdf (25/03) - also available as tiff file on request.
- UPDATE: dwg floorplan uploaded (03/04)

6) Project Deliverables

Submission of entrances is preferred in English, but can also happen in your native language.

Deliverables:
- External perspectives from 4 sides for the facade
- Lights scheme
- 3D Render views
- Material plan and construction techniques applied for the facades
- In case of paintings: type of painting (e.g. broom finished concrete) and colour codes (RAL or other codings)


7) Closing Remarks

If you require more information, photos, or videos, please post into the message board.
Thank you very much for going through this brief and considering to work on our project!
Looking forward to your submission!!

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