House in Oporto
PT Oporto Rue Morgado Mateus 123
109 m2

When I think of the origins of our great interest in plan making, I recall visiting the home of some friends, Jorge and Teresa, in Oporto back in 1996.

From a first-floor landing, one enters a hall in the shape of an offset hexagon. Rooms led off this space and their glazed doors are so positioned as to allow, when left casually open, views across the entire apartment. 

The bathroom, bedroom and kitchen have doors at both ends, which means that you can walk through these rooms and join a gallery. With single-glazed, outward opening window casements, this space links the apartment with the central light well of the apartment building. 

In the gallery washing may be hung up to dry and, on winter nights, with the windows closed, the space acts as an insulating buffer zone to the quiet sleeping spaces beyond. 

The central hall is big enough for a table to be placed at the centre, or for the children to play and make things on the floor.

It has always interested me the way a plan might originate from the centre and spin outwards linking rooms and spaces – the ‘more than 4 sides’ aspect of a room allows for a rich interior landscape.

Stephen Bates

Miremont le Crêt
Marc Saugey
CH Genéve 1959
65 m2

Wie ein Sägezahnblatt rattert das Immeuble Miremont-le-Crêt der Strassenflucht entlang. Gebaut als Stützen-Platten-Konstruktion aus Eisenbeton, Faserzement, Aluminium, Stahl und Drahtglas ist es eine Ode an Leichtigkeit, Transparenz und die Innovationslust der Nachkriegszeit. Gewiss keine Wohnzeile für das Existenzminimum, so ist das grossbürgerliche Haus doch typisch modernistisch, sprich nutzungsoptimiert und –determiniert. Fast all das muss man im Angesicht der Klimakrise hinterfragen. 

Doch welche Raffinesse im Grundriss: Das zur Fassadenflucht um 30 oder 60 Grad verdrehte Raumraster schafft verschiedene Blickrichtungen und bringt Licht in den tiefen Baukörper. Jede der grundsätzlich einseitig orientierten Wohnungen gewinnt dadurch an Reichtum und umschlingt eine dreieckige Loggia. Die Qualität der 2.5-Zimmer-Wohnung ist unerreicht. Kleiderschrank und Bad schmiegen sich in die Gebäudetiefe. Die Küche wickelt sich um den Balkon. Vor dem Schlafzimmer ist dieser schmaler, vor dem Wohnzimmer mit ausgestülpter Sofaecke breiter. Beide liegen längs zur Fassade, was beinahe unverschämt grosszügig ist.

Palle Petersen

Cottage La Trobe
Manning London
AU Jolimont Melbourne 1839
104 m2

This house is timber, built by Manning of London. Crafted there and sent to the colonies. This one arrived in Melbourne and was raised in 1839. 

Panels arrived, each measuring 1.2 meters in width, fashioned like an old door, with rails, stiles, and insets. They were fitted to square posts, rebated to receive them. The assembly formed a structural order that is subtle but persistent. The doors, nearly identical to the panels, blend seamlessly with the walls, lending each room a sense of independence. And in a certain way, the feeling of being surrounded by a facade, as if outside on the street.

Each room has a distinct size and proportion. The large room is a thick rectangle while another smaller room is connected by a hall that cuts through the house, broad enough for a chair. There are no doors to the small service rooms they open onto the hall like alleys spilling onto a grand street.

The kitchen and bathroom are in separate structures. Without them, the plan has a quiet simplicity, where attention can be placed on the relationship of room to room and imagining how I might live there.

Andrew Power

Haus Bergstrasse
Flora Steiger-Crawford & Rudolf Steiger
CH Zürich 1959
175 m2

I know many beautiful floor plans, but there are only a few that leave a lasting impression even after visiting them. The layout of the distinctive Haus Steiger-Crawford did exactly that. This Swiss-modernist house from the 1950s was the personal home of Rudolf Steiger and Flora Steiger-Crawford. Together, they designed a building featuring two elevated apartments stacked on top of each other, characterized by a simple, centrally organized layout.

When I visited the house a few years ago, the fact that Flora was the first female architect to graduate from ETH Zurich no longer felt like a minor detail. Complementing the methodical modernist idiom, the floor plan reveals deeply considered ideas about how life would actually be lived here.

From the shared staircase, you enter a central, octagonal living area, with all other rooms arranged around it without the need for corridors. The bathroom, kitchen, and storage space are discreetly tucked into the flanks, while the true living spaces are generously proportioned, capitalising on magnificent views through large windows.

The floor plan radiates reciprocity. In this house, you live together—with one another, and with the architecture. Thanks to the elevated position of the home, the large facade openings, and a surrounding, cantilevered balcony, residents can also connect generously with the surrounding Doldertal.

Ninke Happel