when viewed from the outside, the Haus mit drei Treppenhäusern (literally ‘house with three stairs’) by Kraus Schönberg Architekten in Hamburg intrigues with its atypical volume. The three reinforced concrete cubes that make it up do actually appear to be suspended in midair, supported by a series of partitions that can be seen through the large glass fronts. The key to the enigma is found in the floor plan (as well as in the name of the work itself): the volumes of the house rest on independent stairways, three nuclei that, with the addition of a few partitions, form the load-bearing system of the building. This complex volumetric trick could be dismissed as a futile affectation. And yet, it is a response to the needs of the clients, a family in search of a home that could guarantee relative autonomy to its different members.

La entrada Detached House se publicó primero en Global Spaces.