Articles by Alexandria Bramley

The house is located in the upper part of the historic center of Assisi. It appears embedded in the building fabric, which stretches parallel to one of the main streets of the city and opens up towards the south, overlooking the lower part of town and the valley below. On the southern front, there is the sole entrance to the property, while at the back of the building towards the north, there is the garden organized on terraces, that model the strong sloping characteristic of the area.

The house is located in the upper part of the historic center of Assisi. It appears embedded in the building fabric, which stretches parallel to one of the main streets of the city and opens up towards the south, overlooking the lower part of town and the valley below. On the southern front, there is the sole entrance to the property, while at the back of the building towards the north, there is the garden organized on terraces, that model the strong sloping characteristic of the area.

In the immediate vicinity of the Bergische Universität Wuppertal, a remaining plot of land was used to provide 132 student housing units. The site was considered undevelopable due to its very narrow layout and extreme slope (18m difference in height). The design transforms the specific features into an advantage: the slope is used to offset the height of the houses and to minimise the built-up areas. The narrowness of the site is compensated for by means of designed boundary transgression.

The existing site axes, prevailing winds, annual solar paths, protected structures, vistas, and landscape have determined the building’s location, orientation, size, form, and materiality.

In the far north of the Bregenzerwald lies the small community of Sulzberg on the ridge of the same-named mountain. We built a house on a steep slope in the middle of a densely built-up residential area, which makes perfect use of the limited plot of land. Due to the extreme slope, we have divided the spaces into three floors.