Residential house in Munich - Textile facade combined with individual sun protection and privacy protection

The residential house that Berlin architect László Ambrus designed in Munich for a family friend stands on the corner of a semicircular, quiet street. This eye-catching location might have contributed to the architect dividing the structure of the house into a "heavy" and a "light" half. The heavy of the exposed concrete contrasts with the "light" of the glass-textile facade. The textile mantle and the WAREMA frame screens integrated into it give the house its unmistakable "face": they are printed with a graphically processed tree shadow. With this, the house blends perfectly into the tree-rich surroundings.

The neighborhoods once conceived as garden cities within the urban area of Munich are subject to strong transformation due to the present lack of housing and high land prices. Therefore, an urban catalog of measures with guidelines for planning free space should help to preserve character despite densification. Loose buildings, deep front gardens, public greenery and an old tree stock are other typical features worth preserving.

Commissioned by a family friend, Berlin architect László Ambrus planned the "Haus am Scheitelpunkt" in southern Munich. The building, completed in 2022, stands in the context of a historically grown garden suburb created in the 1930s. The two-story, flat-roofed building stands at the corner of a semi-circular residential street. This encloses a public, tree-lined green area. The building is surrounded mainly by single-family houses - from past decades and from more recent years.

A house as a mediator

From an urban planning point of view, the new house plays a "mediating role." For one adjacent house was placed directly on the street side, and the other is located about 3.5 m to the rear. This discrepancy is "compensated" by the new house, as it is not too close to the street, but also does not clearly recede from the street. In addition, this created space for a small front yard typical of the neighborhood.

The street view perfectly reflects the design motif of the "House on the corner": it follows the course of the semicircular street by means of two different halves that are at a slight angle to each other. The northern half consists of insulating concrete and is clad in brass on the first floor. This building half looks compact, closed, "steadfast." The southern half of the house, "light" in its essence, is surrounded by room-high glazing at street level with a printed sheathing of fabric on the upper floor. The 25-foot-long web of gray-green, weather-resistant fabric wrapped around the entire southern portion of the house is printed with a graphic image of tree shade. This sheath is suspended from vertical rails at the corners of the building and from two horizontal guide rails along the attic and glazing on the first floor. The track hangs about 15 cm in front of the supporting structure and the glass skin. In the direction of the garden, the building fans out - in accordance with the trapezoidal plot. In the process, the monolithic structure penetrates approx. 2 meters in front of the "light" part.

On the approximately 300 m² of the interior, the architect continued the material language of the exterior: The floors consist of sanded screed, the walls of exposed concrete and the curtains in the color of the textile sheathing of the facade. The first floor - generous and open - presents itself as a space continuum. Here are the foyer with walk-in closet, the living and dining area and an open stairwell. In the center of the space, the architect placed the open kitchen cube clad in polished Liquid Metal and fixtures made of black stained wood (bog oak). The upper level houses parent and child rooms, bathrooms and an open gallery with work zone. In the basement, the architect placed a guest apartment, which can later be converted into a gym when the children have moved out.

Facades as a projection surface

While the neighboring houses are reflected in the glass facade, the textile skin and integrated WAREMA frame screens with easyZIP guidance create the impression that it is the trees of the surrounding area that cast their shadows on them. "The idea with the shadow prints, with which the building, despite its dominance, blends as unobtrusively as possible into the tree-rich surroundings," as the client explains, could be implemented one-to-one with WAREMA.

For this highly individual solution, the same canvas in the same color shade was used for mantle and frame screens. Moreover, the printed image continues on both surfaces without graphic gaps. When the frame screens are moved down, the astonishingly realistic impression of an actual shadow is created.

The sun protection specialist WAREMA realized this digital, large-format printing technique on the awning fabric as a special solution, in accordance with the architect's specifications. A harmonious whole is created with the frame screen, and reliable and stylish sun protection is provided. Especially in the hot summer months, the awning not only provides good glare protection, but also contributes to a pleasantly cool room climate. Because overheating can thus be avoided, combined with a ventilation system, cooling costs can generally be reduced and the use of air conditioners reduced. Thus, effective summer thermal insulation not only contributes to personal comfort, but also to energy efficiency, and thus to climate protection. Thanks to the integrated easyZIP guide, the frame screens possess excellent wind stability, so that they can be used as protection from sunlight and view in almost any kind of weather.

With this building, high functionality and strong design go hand-in-hand.

Building sign

Object: residential house in Munich
Location: Munich, Germany
Client: private
Architecture/Planning: ambrus+co plan.werk gmbh, Berlin, Germany, https://ambrusco.de/
Textile facade: Grafikdesignbüro NAROSKA Design, Berlin, Germany TYPICO GmbH, Lochau, Austria,
Landscape Planning: franziska meyer-fey landschaftsarchitektur, Herrsching, Germany, https://meyer-fey.de
Sunshade design: fa. Weigl, Meitingen, Germany
Completion: 2022
Awning: WAREMA window system-frame screen with easyZIP guide