Cooperative Housing Feld4
Basel, Switzerland | 2022
[MASStudio]
The central concern of the Feld 4 housing cooperative was the creation of spaces for collective living with intensive, neighborly interaction in the sense of a family house community. The participatory planning began with the first fundamental decisions on the typology and continued through to the fine-tuning of details and materials. In particular, this participatory process led to the development of an individualization for the extension that was appropriate to the size of the house.
Flexibility of use and adaptability. The building offers a wide range of different apartment typologies from studios up to 5.5-room apartments, so that very different needs can be taken into account. The flexibility of use is at the heart of the objectives. The combination of cooperative apartments for long-term rental and small apartments for low-threshold rental makes it possible to combine different lifestyles and living arrangements. The adaptability of the apartments on each floor ensures dense living and offers WBG F4 the basis for change and development of the cooperative over time in the interests of the respective residents.
The arrangement offers the option of different divisions on the floor. Using a switch room, 1 to 2 apartments of varying sizes can be offered on the standard floor in this form. This room also offers great flexibility in the multi-story apartment version, as it can be used as a bedroom, home office, or guest room. Convertibility was taken into account right from the start of planning. Recesses were created in the concrete walls for possible doors. The partition walls orthogonal to the outer wall are constructed as lightweight walls, so that door installations and conversions represent minor interventions. The adaptations to the building technology have also been planned with foresight.
Structure and materialization. The core of the building is an efficient solid construction, with the façade and roof closed in by a timber construction shell. The exterior appearance of the building's façade cladding is conceptually linked to its former industrial and commercial site use.
The industrial look is contrasted with wooden elements that directly interact with the residents. Windows and reveals are manufactured accordingly and offer a homely and natural appearance, which also conveys the character of the timber construction to the outside world. The contrast between the two materials of industrial panels and the natural material wood creates a composition: this not only achieves a cost-effective and sustainable building but also creates its aesthetic and quality that reflects an architectural connection between the newly emerging quarter and the former industrial usage structure.
In the interior, emphasis was placed on a bright, natural, and friendly atmosphere. The ceilings and walls are plastered and painted white, the floor is a polished anhydride screed. The exterior façade is clad with a white glazed three-layer spruce panel, thus reflecting the timber construction on the inside as well. Text description by the architects.
