Gmür Gschwendtner: Apartment building Paul Clairmont street

The balcony, reinvented. Building for the cooperative.

The elongated building, staggered in height, reflects the terrain and the different scales of the surroundings. The staircases of the three- to seven-storey parts of the building are connected on the entrance floor by a rue intérieure (a large, long corridor) and jointly accessed via a representative main entrance. Encounter and exchange are very important in the building.

A self-supporting balcony layer is located in front of the building on the south-west side. The shifted arrangement of the balconies creates two-storey areas that allow daylight to penetrate far into the apartments. The room-sized balcony is enclosed by a parapet as tall as a man, giving it the character of a private patio. Accentuated openings move the immediate surroundings into a pleasant distance and lend the conventionally organised apartments a specific identity.

(text source: architects’ website)