Site Specific: Unfinished House

ANA - Innsbruck, Austria, 2022-23

A series of photographs and drawings of an almost-finished series of interventions made to a family house in Innsbruck, by ANA, a practice based between Switzerland and Germany. ANA have re-configured the house and completed a technical upgrade of the building’s services.

Sometimes economic constraints, like structural limitations, can result in a less specific, lighter approach to making interventions in existing buildings. Similarly an acknowledgement that family life itself goes through transformations and re-configurations can suggest a more flexible approach to the compartmentalisation of a domestic interior. When overly specific predictions about a building’s use are avoided concerns with light, air and space can sometimes come to the fore.

ANA The house on Barthweg was built in the 1970s as part of a small development of townhouses and has been remodeled several times over the years. Most recently, the roof was renewed, the building envelope insulated and the interior remodeling was started, but not completed. And now, on a very limited budget, it was to become the new home for a family of four. This project is an attempt to transform the already adjusted building into something radically new using simple means. Simultaneously all technical installations had to be completely renewed.

With as few structural interventions as possible, the narrowness of the house is broken up and a new generosity is created in the interior: the bathroom is connected to the facade and thus naturally ventilated and lit. On the ground floor, the corridor is completely dissolved and becomes part of the living room. The kitchen is connected with the living room and at the same time becomes the entrance room of the house. On the first floor, the corridor becomes a playable space with daylight, which also extends to the facade and connects the two kids' rooms.

The interventions are kept as simple and raw as possible, so that they can still be completed, augmented or built on by the client in the future. In some areas, built-in components are specifically fitted into the existing structure in order to create new spatial qualities.

NOTES

Many thanks to the project team of Tobias and Lukas Fink for their help in posting this project.

Photographs by Tobias Fink.

ANA is a collaborative architectural practice led by Jan Engelke, Lukas Fink, Tobias Fink and Charlotte Schaeben.

Posted 24th October 2024.

We’ve previously posted other projects by ANA: Offenbach Kaleidoscope and Bogen 131.