Wood 5 1/4

Two residential buildings, the likes of which have never been seen before in Germany, are shaped near the entrance to the international garden show hamburg 2013. They feature a unique mix of traditional house building and innovative, environmentally friendly forms of building. Wood 5 ¼ sees wooden elements merged with reinforced steel stairways and ceilings to form a new type of construction.

Timber Buildings for the Next Generation

The buildings’ snappy and unconventional name, “5 ¼”, simply derives from the number of storeys; both houses consist of five full floors and a mezzanine floor, which is set a little back from the uppermost full floor and has a smaller area. In this case, the mezzanine floor takes up only a quarter of the area of the full floor, hence the name “5 ¼”. Both buildings are set around a courtyard, together with the Medical Centre and the neighbouring constructions.

From the outside, the two buildings, each containing twenty-eight privately owned apartments, differ from one another only in their colour. Due to its smaller surface area, the top floor has a spacious roof terrace, while the lower apartments have balconies that jut out from the exterior. Private gardens are being created on the ground floor. In addition to its simple outer shell, the design features an open, conspiciuous staircase dividing each building in the middle and providing access to fourteen apartments. Cars are parked centrally in the underground garage beneath the Medical Centre, so that the residents have free rein of the outdoor space.

Good for the Environment and the Wallet

The buildings’ load-bearing structure features a combination of reinforced concrete and solid wood building components. The wooden façades are made of completely prefabricated sections. The highlight is the fire safety-oriented design, according to which the wooden walls are also visible as such on the inside of the building, without being encased in any other material.

As this is a completely prefabricated wooden construction, the outer walls can be assembled quickly. Using wood has a number of other advantages: it is not only environmentally friendly but also economical as a building material, as it is light to transport, can be assembled quickly on site, and is well suited to prefabricated construction systems. Moreover, although Wood 5 ¼ is unique, its cost-effective construction and fire safety concept make it capable of being produced on a mass scale.