Lake Scharmützel, a popular sailing venue, lies some 70 km south-east of Berlin. In order to spend more time with boats, the client, a passionate yachtsman, wanted to have a place to stay there. The house he built stands at the highest point of a tree-lined site directly on the lake. The land rises slightly from the road, flows through the transparent ground floor and falls nine metres on the other side down to the water. The architects responded to the client’s wish for a solid form of construction by designing the house in concrete, the surfaces of which were given a corrugated profile as a means of articulating the volume.
Internally, the ground floor is dominated by exposed concrete surfaces. A suspended steel staircase divides the large, column-free space into different zones. The upper floor is clad internally entirely with maritime pine boarding – not unlike the cabin of a yacht. Here, construction elements oriented at various angles to the ridge and with sliding doors along the glazed facade create an enfilade next to the loggia and help to alleviate the strict, basic layout.
In contrast to the ground floor end walls with their core insulation, the roof and the outer walls on the upper level are insulated behind the internal timber lining. Junctions between the vertical and sloping areas of the exposed concrete outer skin are designed without offsets or projections. Rainwater gutters have been integrated in the concrete roof surfaces. The corrugated outer texture, created by wrot rectangular wooden strips nailed to the shuttering panels, continues over the edges, unifying the whole volume. The joints between working stages in the concrete were roughened and thus remain legible. Tie holes in the roof were sealed with adhesive-fixed fibre-cement conical inserts.
Internally, the ground floor is dominated by exposed concrete surfaces. A suspended steel staircase divides the large, column-free space into different zones. The upper floor is clad internally entirely with maritime pine boarding – not unlike the cabin of a yacht. Here, construction elements oriented at various angles to the ridge and with sliding doors along the glazed facade create an enfilade next to the loggia and help to alleviate the strict, basic layout.
In contrast to the ground floor end walls with their core insulation, the roof and the outer walls on the upper level are insulated behind the internal timber lining. Junctions between the vertical and sloping areas of the exposed concrete outer skin are designed without offsets or projections. Rainwater gutters have been integrated in the concrete roof surfaces. The corrugated outer texture, created by wrot rectangular wooden strips nailed to the shuttering panels, continues over the edges, unifying the whole volume. The joints between working stages in the concrete were roughened and thus remain legible. Tie holes in the roof were sealed with adhesive-fixed fibre-cement conical inserts.