One German architecture duo has found a smart recipe for success:
“Find your niche and take it from there."
At first glance, it seems incongruous, out of place. What is a wooden cabin doing in the middle of a big city? Are we going back to previous eras? Will we all soon be living as if we were in the country? One might have that impression, now that wooden cabins by the office of Hütten und Paläste (Huts and Palaces) are not only to be found in the pages of architecture magazines but also seen in real-life in the heart of Germany’s buzzing capital, Berlin. Similar trends are noticeable in the U.S.A. and Canada. However, none of the comparable architecture is quite so cabin-like, nor does it better allay the initial fear that we are looking backwards and not forwards.
Over the past few decades, the lifestyles of big city-dwellers have changed drastically. The classic model of the family man who works in the city, lives out in the country and accepts the daily, time-consuming commute to work as a matter of fact has changed in favor of a more static way of life. Less and less do modern urbanites compensate for a stressful day by heading out to the suburbs in the evening rush-hour traffic.
Nanni Grau, the female half of the architect couple Hütten und Paläste, describes this trend as a “renaissance of the cities”. “Everything is being crowded into the city. New, alternative models for lifestyles - such as living as singles or single parents – create a need for socializing in the same, small space. The allotment garden is gaining importance; it has become an integral component of urban life. After work, people head to the supermarket, then into the garden, and afterwards to a club,” she says, describing the daily routine of a steadily growing target group.
Gardens do in fact make up a large area of inner city space. These gardens are not always the private plots of land originally intended to provide a place of rest and rejuvenation for the workforce. In the era of industrialization, these gardens were established together by industrialists and city officials as small, life-enhancing havens for the stressed worker family. Today, their original purpose is becoming less relevant. Now, the demographic is changing and so is the way garden areas are used. Hütten und Paläste positions itself between the poles of the traditional garden and a space for modern city dwellers to rest and relax.
Frank Schönert is the other half of the cabin-building team and also the father of the couple’s now one-year-old son. “We are also members of our own target group,” is how he explains his ability to sense what his clients want. “There are less and less people who have the handywork skills to do everything themselves, while the demand for aesthetic living is increasing. Today, hardly anyone builds their house themselves, which is good for us. Our cabins are easy to customize and can be built quickly. They are constructed according to individual specifications, based on a building-block system, and can also reflect the given surroundings of the site and the client’s specific preferences. Color functions as an important added component. For clients, is it one of the freedoms they have within the limitations of the overall design. The aesthetic simplicity of the overall construction places great importance on the façade and its design. Visually the cabins always remain cabins. The form is simple, pared down, modern. Still, the form remains a personalized expression of individual wishes and desires and is, in that sense, ornament. That is its potential.”
Nanni and Frank agree that they are lucky to have found an attractive niche, which allows them to bring their creative ideas to reality. Although the architecture office focuses its efforts on building “palaces” (Paläste), i.e., vacation homes and renovations, they still dedicate a lot of time to their “cabin fever”. They want to do more in this creative field, and, as Nanni explains, use it for the benefit of the client - and themselves: “Building a cabin is an event. The personal atmosphere around building something together and the process of making the building one’s own become a shared experience between architect and client. That creates a bond that you seldom find with complex architecture.”
Link:
www.huettenundpalaeste.de
