This wooden apartment building is being built in Widnau and comprises a total of 11 apartments spread over two buildings. The two buildings are connected by an open timber construction as an access wing and by balconies on the west side. The building is oriented in a north-south direction.

Our approach: build as few houses as possible.
Therefore, only one of the two structures has a basement. In this project, we made a conscious decision to plan the timber construction right down to the basement. Only the outer walls of the basement are made of concrete to reduce the carbon footprint and further simplify the construction method.

Instead of concrete ceilings in the escape routes, wooden beams are arranged in a 1.5-meter grid and covered with prefabricated concrete elements. This design meets the fire protection requirements and also saves a considerable amount of material.

The outer walls of the building are filled with hemp, plastered with lime plaster on the outside and finished with clay plaster on the inside. This three-layer wall structure is open to diffusion, so that the usual foils used in timber construction can be dispensed with.

In our efforts to build as little as possible, we deliberately do without mechanical ventilation. Instead, ventilation flaps integrated into the window reveals, which are controlled by CO₂ sensors, ensure a natural supply of fresh air. The regular window grid with deep reveals gives the building a refined appearance.

The roof is designed as a high-quality standing seam roof made of metal. An integrated photovoltaic system will be installed on the southern roof surface. The slats are continued in the space between the structures and designed as visible rafters. These are protected from rain by a glass cover and serve as active solar shading on the south side with integrated PV cells.

Our aim is to erect the building from the ceiling upwards in just 19 weeks thanks to a high degree of prefabrication.