Inserted in an extremely narrow gap—just 2.56 meters wide—the project is less a house in the classical four-walls-and-one-roof sense but an infill for Cologne’s city center. The office and apartment building uses the existing party walls of the neighboring houses by inserting the concrete floor slabs directly into them, which allows for maximized use of the limited space. At ground level, a narrow corridor passes through the building into the rear courtyard, connecting the sidewalk with the exterior staircase at the back of the building. Relocating the vertical circulation to the outside not only increases the use of interior space but also allows for separate use by the apartment tenants. The one-room units have no partition walls. Instead, the core, comprised of the bathroom and storage space, divides the open floor into zones and permits minimum spatial separation. The apartments are open to the east and west sides of the building. With fully glazed facades this provides an unexpectedly spacious feeling inside which is continued on the roof terrace. Read more