“Less is more” was the philosophy that informed the design of this detached family home near Cologne, therefore the impact of the brick façade with its almost archaic aesthetic is all the more pronounced.
Haus Sechzehn A (House Sixteen A) was recently completed in Bergisch Gladbach, close to Cologne, Germany, in a newly developed, varied residential area. In order to create a strikingly simple, yet elegant building, the architects Römer Kögeler und Partner decided to revisit the original concept of a house: four walls and a roof.
In their design, they have dispensed with any protrusions and recesses, bay windows and dormer windows, and created a restrained façade that fits into its urban environment with assured use of natural materials while at the same time making a distinctive architectural statement.
The special talent of the brick façade is in combining contemporary flair with an almost primordial appearance. Terca waterstruck bricks Niara from Wienerberger were used in modern light grey shades with subsidiary dark brown shades.
50 % of the brickwork is in the form of “foot walling”, with the “foot side”, i. e. the back of the clinker bricks, being used for the face brickwork. Folding reliefs give each brick an individual, distinctive surface structure. This roughness gives the homogeneous façade a textured appearance that contrasts with the simplicity of the building form.
Waterstruck bricks are a purely natural building material. With their rustic authenticity, they help generate a natural living ambience, creating a neat symbiosis of nature and architecture: sustainable, timeless, expressive.
Their individual look is due to the production process in which the clay is pressed through rotary table presses, obtaining their typical surface texture through the use of water as a separating agent. No one brick is like any other, and the bricks with their natural colours radiate warmth and naturalness. That is why they were an ideal choice for the pared down aesthetics of Haus Sechzehn A.
Here the façade harmonises perfectly with the floor-to-ceiling windows and the simplicity of the architecture. Without doubt, the architects succeeded in designing an extremely distinctive detached home despite the simple form.
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