Designed by: @fakt_office

Captured by: Simon Menges

An extension to an existing 1960s house in southwest Berlin creates additional space for living and working from home, while establishing a direct relationship with the surrounding garden. Set on a generous sloping plot, the new volume continues the existing living landscape on a single level, extending it into the garden through a new plateau of white exposed concrete. The design is conceived as an architecture that defines, limits and opens at the same time, allowing interior and exterior spaces to remain in constant exchange.

The starting point was the idea of using only eight slim wall panels as the formative element. The walls provide the structure while also defining the rooms, creating different spatial situations within a compact footprint through simple means. A light roof structure encircles the eight panels, spanning between the floor slab and ceiling slab and leaving the interior largely open. Three interior spaces are perceived, connected not only to one another but also to the garden and to a patio that functions as a fourth space.

Inside, three flexible areas can be used for living or working, each opening directly to the exterior through a generous sliding glass element. The garden-facing exterior consists of a covered west-facing terrace and a more introverted patio with planting and a courtyard tree. These spaces extend the sequence of rooms beyond the glazed openings, creating different relationships between the enclosed areas and the garden. The patio in particular introduces a more inward-facing spatial situation within the otherwise open arrangement.

The eight walls are deliberately narrow, measuring only 50 mm, and reveal their construction of steel profiles along their narrow sides. Their elevation surfaces are clad in slightly reflective anodized aluminium, allowing the light tones and colours of the garden to be subtly reflected into the interior. Together with the white concrete, glass and restrained roof structure, these elements create a reduced architectural framework in which the boundaries between inside and outside remain fluid.