Wohnanlage Genter Strasse | Otto Steidle and partner

Germany | 1972 | soft form

Description

The houses between Genter Straße, Peter-Paul Althaus Straße and Osterwaldstraße were built in three phases in the early 1970s. The three phases also represent a continuous process of adaptation of an industrially prefabricated building system. The distinct phases are also expressed in three different working collaborations (Phase 1: Otto Steidle with Doris Thut, Ralph Thut and Jens Freiberg; Phase 2: Otto Steidle with Eckardt Böck and Gerhard Niese; and Phase 3: Otto Steidle with Roland Sommerer and Jens Freiberg).

Whilst all buildings of all three phases are built with a skeleton of reinforced concrete column and beams, they all differ in their detailed design. During the first phase, a row of seven houses was built on Genter Straße. The building system consisted of a reinforced concrete skeleton with corbels on every half storey, reinforced concrete columns with double height longitudinal downstand beams, cross beams and ceiling panels and braced through installation cores made from in situ concrete. The second phase again consisted of seven units, which were built just behind those on Genter Straße.

Here, Otto Steidle used the reinforced concrete skeleton 'Elementa', which presents itself as a simplified system of columns with longitudinal downstand beams and ceiling panels. Here, prefabricated wet cores provide the necessary structural integrity. Phase 3, finally, uses a reinforced concrete skeleton system that is without direction and only has columns and ceiling panels; prefabricated wall panels and wet cores are used for bracing. Apart from structural differences, there are differences in the way the structure is expressed, open as in the Genter Straße or completely encased in the buildings of the two later phases, as well as differences in span. Whilst the buildings also differ in terms of architectural expression, the spatial possibilities are the same.

The buildings, in particular the buildings on Genter Straße with their visible structural frame, illustrate a principle of flexibility that can also be found in Hertzberger's Diagoon Houses. Steidle provides lots of space from the very beginning, a reserve of space through construction, within which additional space can be realised - either on the outside through building into the non-filled parts of the expressed frame or on the inside by filling in initially one-and-a-half or two storey spaces. Because of the clarity in distinction between loadbearing and non-loadbearing construction, in particular in the Genter Straße scheme, walls within the frame can be altered easily to be adapted to users' needs and wants. Over the last 30 years, volume, interiors, and uses have changed considerably.

References

'Anpaßbarer Wohnungsbau', Baumeister, 74, 1977, pp. 1163-66.
Johann, W., 'Structuralisme in Prefab Beton : Variabele Woonstructuur München', De Architect, 12, 1981, pp. 55-59.
Kossak, F., Otto Steidle : bewohnbare Bauten = structures for living, Zürich: Artemis, 1994.
Periàñez, M., L’habitat évolutif: du mythe aux réalités, Paris: PCA, 1993.
'Wohnanlage in München', Detail, 1985, pp. 375-78.