HAUS LANZINGERM9-Architekten (Senfter + Lanzinger)

Location:Brixlegg, Tyrol, Austria Built: 2003Ground Surface: 48m2Living Surface: 145m2Height: 15m Wood used: 80m3

Description:

An architect to in front of the challenge to build his own home brings forward a lot of feelings and ideas, because you finally dont have anybody than yourself (and your wife and kids) telling you what to do.In this situation Arch. Antonius Lanzinger kept a cool head and designed something as simple and yet as difficult as possible.The ground was bought cheap and brought a few problems with it. First there is the gradient of 35°, than the fact of the hillside being situated to the northwest, stones coming out of the ground and last but not least the nearby wood covering the wintersun.Given these specifications the form of a tower was the best solution for the architect to:

. get sun into the upper floors, where the sleeping rooms are situated

. have a fundament as small as possible in surface

. get an atmospheric view over the whole valley

Architecture:

The log construction is one of the, when not the, oldest form to use wood in constructions. Also the fact, that the architect realized the building purely out of wood without any heat insulation gives the building alto-gether a very elementary touch and esthetical haptic. The only usage of concrete in this building is happening in the fundament and one core in the middle to hold the conducts and the chimney.

The building is separated in an public space with a parlor, a gallery and a kitchen in the two downer floors and the sleeping units in the upper two. At the Top you find a big terrace with a view over the landscape and on the bottom a basement for storage and utensils (Washing machine, etc.)

Details:

Usually log constructions used stones and small pillars of wood to keep the ground sills away from earth and moisture. In our case this measure is not needed because the fundament of concrete, that had to be used, to balance the gradient of the hillside, is already doing the job. The therefore give space of the concrete fun-dament is used as an basement floor. One other difficulty in construction was the height of 15m only in log construction.

Opinion:

Well, the architect itself states in an interview, that this whole thing was an experi-ment, only possible through the fact, that he was his own client. For example, when you are up in the sleeping units you can feel the building shifting to the wind and the vibration of its owners.My opinion therefore is, that it this bulding is a unique piece of modern architecture reflecting the roots of constructing with wood and i like the idea of not using any chemistry.

The Wall:

The logwall continues in the same thickness of 16cm (=U: 0,8 W/(K.m2)) from bottom to top , after one winter of trial, the architect decided, that it is enough make an habitable climate and that there is no need for another internal wood coverage, since the „Tongue-groove“-connection of the wall is already very airtight.The only problem is the connections of the corners, that in order to be airtight enough for the classification as a low-energy-house would have needed an further treatment with foyle. Also the wall did not get any further surface-treatment except the usual planing.This means, that the whole building was built without any chemistry and is reference to pure hand craft.

Windows:

The small coverage of windows (North 0,8%, South 20%, East 5,6% and West 18%) doesnt bring very much solarisation, but instead gives the freedom of designing esthetical influences of light and well picked views on the landscape. The Heating happens with a chimney of ceramic and the core of concrete serves as a storage medium. 15m3 of log are enough to keep up the cosiness in all the winter.

A very interesting detail is the turning of the bottom of the window to the inside to avoid problems with the bulging and shrinking of the wood.

Benjamin SchmidAACC, M1

Detail: Joints

Basement Ground Floor

Detail: Tongue-groove

Detail: Section of Window