Long before holland – long after functionalism.
The tiny remaining parcel by a fire wall in the rear courtyard of two biedermeier houses ( > Loft extension Praterstraße)
left just enough space for a horse and carriage. Six apartments with standard ceiling heights would have been practicable,
however, due to a special arrangement of rooms with a height of 2.26 m each in the entrance area, it turned out to be seven.
Almost a century after the aspirations of Modernism, function is no longer proof of quality. Praterstraße posed a spatial
challenge right from the start. Rooms of varying space and size obey no strict rules of hierarchy within the permitted volume.
The apartments form stimulating sequences of long, low and high, cubic rooms. In the smallest room is the toilet, in the
largest, the living room – but that is not a must. Expressions that have nothing to do with living such as swimming pool or
pulpit are more suitable to describe supra-functional quality than kitchen, bedroom or children’s room. From what we have seen from the residents up to now, they appreciate the level of freedom this approach gives them.
