Green areas abound in the city of Hamburg, situated between the Elbe and Alster. During the nineteenth century villas were built close to the centre, incorporating old trees, wide roads and paths. Our firm in Hamburg was commissioned to convert a villa for a family, in the west of the city, dating from 1926. The basic architectural style was still recognizable, although the building itself had been divided into appartments on each floor, the ground floor having been extended and used as business premises.
Project data
Place: Builder: privat Planning: Construction time: Costs: k.A. Net Floor Area: Photograph: Hagen Stier
Main living area on ground floor
Employing ingenious ideas, the architects were able to re-plan the stairway to an open, internal stairway between the living room and the bedroom floors. Adopting a style typical of Hamburg villa architecture, the rooms were connected in an enfilade style to one another with wide sliding doors. The veranda, having been completely disfigured, was freed of its extensions and rebuilt as a conservatory. The rooms, with new peach pine flooring laid between conservatory, living room , dining room with its fireplace and children’s living room with direct access to the garden, offer manifold possibilities as meeting place and central living area for the family.
Sophisticated living quality behind a historical façade
Access out on to the balconies from the bedrooms and studies in the upper floors was maintained. The rooms are bathed in sunlight through the large windows. An enhanced quality of lifestyle was afforded through the generous bathrooms, developed into small luxury oases, with such details as a free-standing bath looking out over the garden, a large floor to ceiling shower unit, as well as a simple shaft descending into the cellar into the laundry room below.
With the assistance of old photographs and resulting from their own research, rimpf could reconstruct and repair the original façade. Other details such as the conservatory, a new interpretation of the historical veranda were modifications. The colours used were true to the tradition of other Hamburg villas. New wooden windows, adorned with filigree frames, were incorporated into the historical façade. The windows internally adopt the former profiled mounted appearance.
Building Ecology and Biology
It is a matter of course to our Hamburg Architects that health and safety be a high priority in the choice of building materials, wood oils, paints and building features. The double cavity wall cellulose insulation, special paints prevent radon, emanating from the ground. A special shielding paint prevents electro smog from radio masts.
Our Architects paid equal attention to the house utilities technology. Special attention to the wiring of the house with shielded cabling was in order to prevent unnecessary electromagnetic radiation. All bedrooms were equipped with an electrical shutdown. The drinking water pipes were renewed for hygenic purposes, as well as the complete heating system. A thermal solar station on the roof, invisible to the eye, acts as a hot water storage tank.
A Green Oasis of Relaxation
In compliance with the style of the Hamburg villas, wrought iron fencing adorns the front garden of rhododendron and magnolia trees and bushes. The south-facing garden, away from the street was planned to include a large patio area close to the house. Shrubbery, fruit trees and play areas for the children of the Hamburg family are also incorporated.