Freestanding Houses

To continue developing existing building types in an intelligent way is a crucial task in the field of residential building. For the success of the individual design, as well as for ensuring that tried and tested structures can be utilized, repeated, and varied, a deeper grasp of the underlying types is indispensable. For this typology of residential buildings, the authors have developed systematic new presentations of the most innovative types. Each individual volume lays out the possibilities for using and transforming a particular form of residential structure.

The fourth volume deals with the types of freestanding houses, whose all-around orientation allows for the optimal arrangement of all dwellings. A presentation of the freestanding house as an isolated element and as a building block for larger structures is followed by discussions of topics such as self-sufficiency versus neighborhoods, "Raumplan" versus "plan libre," and individuality versus density.

Within each type, variants are distinguished according to type of access, number of floors, etc. The range of possible solutions is presented in uniform ground plans and sections newly drawn to scale.

Günter Pfeifer is a professor of design and residential building at the Technische Universität Darmstadt (Darmstadt University of Technology). As a practicing architect he has worked with Frank Gehry, Zaha Hadid, Tadao Ando, Alvaro Siza, and others. He taught design and building construction for ten years and is active today in the intelligent, energy-saving, sustainable development of existing building types.

Dipl.-Ing. Per Brauneck is a teacher and researcher at the Technische Universität Darmstadt (Darmstadt University of Technology).

Together they have already published the book Exposed Concrete: Technology and Design (Birkhäuser Verlag).