Brunnmatt-Ost Housing, Bern

The development of a former maintenance area in the Mattenhof district completes one of the last inner-city perimeter-block fragments in Berne. The busy traffic on Schwarztorstrasse means that the public space is loud, but it is also urban, lively and sunny. For this reason the new building deliberately faces the street, and this is why the apartment layouts are exceptional in that the complementary interlocking of the residential units allows everyone to share in the light and life of the street front as well as in the peace and the fresh air of the courtyard-side.

The courtyard facade is creased, as it were, in order to allow as many apartments as possible to participate in the courtyard space, whilst the frontage to the street is tautly spanned. The plastic structuring of the architectural volumes behaves reciprocally – even walls characterize the accentuated motion of the cubic volumes towards the courtyard, whilst the motionless street-front is structured by a hierarchy of pillars. These supports serve to truly stage the solid brick masonry with which the walls are built. The high-quality material reinforces a commitment to an urban district in transition and underscores the long-term perspective of the private property developer and their active engagement in the city with the project.