House H

Sulzberg, Germany

Photo © Becker Architects Planners BDA

Photo © Thomas Drexel

Single Houses

Architects: Becker Architects Planners BDA

Location: Sulzberg, Germany
Year: 2001
Team: Michael Becker, Walter Felder, Rolf Ennulat
Structural engineering: Merz, Kley, Partner GmbH
Building services engineering: GMI Ingenieure
Lighting design: IB Hecht
GFA: 289
GA: 1.703
Awards: Baupreis Kempten 2005, Deutscher Architekturpreis 2003 (recognition), Deutscher Holzbaupreis 2003 (recognition), Holzbaupreis Allgäu 2002

In an exceptional location, a wooded Nagelfluh rock face with its gently moving vertical silhouette forms the natural backbone for a spacious single-family house. The house is rooted in the terrain by monolithic black concrete elements, such as the garage block or the space-defining columns and wall panels. Above this, the actual wooden structure with its dignified aging larch shingle shield seems to literally float.

The living floor is entered via a downward folding brass staircase; a set-in closet zone with a wardrobe and kitchen leads from the spatially elevated, wood-paneled living room with its expansive view of the Allgäu mountains to the children's individual area. From here, another single flight of stairs leads to the all-round glazed panoramic roof extension, which is reserved for the owners themselves.

A timber frame structure with cantilevered solid wood ceilings simultaneously assumes the stiffening and structural-physical storage functions of the building, which is consistently built to low-energy house standards. A ventilation system combined with a wood pellet heating system to feed the underfloor heating system, which is installed over the entire area, and an electrical bus control system ensure that the building offers the highest level of technical comfort and equipment.