The Program

The increasing popularity of inner city residences makes townhouses the ideal starting point for new approaches to urban living. This results in projects that revive the traditional concepts of the narrow and multi-storied residential buildings, of London and New York for example, and at the same time enhance it, expand it, convert it, and even completely reinvent it to come up with answers to the omnipresent lack of space in inner cities. All have in common that they allow its inhabitants to fully enjoy urban life with all its possibilities but also to withdraw from it just like in a single-family house.

To accomplish this spaces are stacked and linked, which results in generous layouts in the smallest areas, existing buildings are expanded by multi-functional residential units and whole apartment blocks grow on tiny building lots. Yet the approach goes beyond new spatial concepts, because it also includes innovative approaches to energy efficiency and sustainability by using new materials and construction methods. All these factors combine to prove that the townhouse has rightfully gained its current popularity.