Who's making who look old?

 
The team at hehnpohl architektur bda in Münster sensitively combined historic architecture with modern design in this building on the edge of Münster’s old town. The scale of the house built here, and the shape of its roof, allow it to blend in with the architecture of the neighbouring historic buildings on Buddenstrasse. Visually, it also reflects the historic Buddenturm, a 12th century fortification, which can be seen from the site.
 
There are three building lines on the street, and this limitation inspired the team of architects to use recesses to create projections in the red-brown brick-clad façade. They give the building an appearance similar to that of medieval timber-frame buildings yet, at the same time, the relatively stark street-facing façade is unambiguously contemporary.

 
Both the internal and external design of this residential building plays with openings and indirect light. On the street side, there is a façade of copper panels with vertical joints on the ground floor, a deeply recessed glazed corner window on the first floor, and a smaller window on the second floor. There are four floors in total. The façade was designed in the style of the old town architecture, and constructed using long, hand-shaped bricks that were fired in a circular continuous kiln.
 
The stretcher course brickwork was constructed entirely from fired bricks; no timber structure was involved. The bricks were laid and filled with wet mortar. The façade was then simply swept down so that the craftsmanship of its construction could still be seen. The external walls are cavity walls with insulation.

To give the house that certain something, the architects chose to use the Terca Linaqua Vino facing brick, which owes its distinctive, rustic appearance to a special production process. These days, the bricks are generally fired in modern tunnel kilns after they have been shaped and dried. However, these special, hand-formed bricks get their appearance from a traditional circular continuous kiln, where the bricks stand in the kiln while the burning coals move slowly along them. This produces individual colour variations, scorch patterns and ash deposits.
 
It is a time-intensive process that involves a lot of manual input – resulting in a unique product. The building has already received several awards for its creative and unusual combination of historic and modern designs, and the choice of materials. In 2019, it was named “Building of the year”, received the German Brick Award (special award for buildings in a historical context) and the Iconic Award 2019. In 2020, the Haus am Buddenturm was shortlisted for the DAM award, won the German Design Award 2020, was nominated for the Brick Award 2020, and its architects were crowned ‘best architects’.