Architecture News Plus (ANP) – Architecture and Design Magazine

Barcode House

This is a project by MVRDV and it is located at Munich, Germany. There are six images for Barcode House.

: © Rob 't Hart

Project images

Designer's statement

Located in one of the outermost bourgeois suburban neighborhoods of Germany's secret capital - Munich - the bountiful villa stretches itself across two rectangular building plots on the site forming a barcode collage. The programmatic arrangement, determined by the daily routine of the owners themselves, manifests itself in the addition of individual elements - stripes - designed to fulfill the spatial demands of the interior program.

The capacious, heavyset volume is divided into ten parts of which nine are incorporated in the proposed building envelope. A curtain effectively crosses over the six-meter-wide gap between the two envelopes and unifies the elements to form a single entity. The identity of each individual stripe is reflected in its material representation in the façade and the interior atmosphere. The interior spatial configuration is based upon the classical notion of the "enfilade" nonetheless its resulting form is a consequence of the addition of the individual parts. The interaction of clear, full-size spaces, which use the entire width of one barcode strip and very small side rooms, alcoves, that serve these spaces, creates a vivid domestic environment - a balance between spatial openness and privacy. A noticeable middle axis spatially and visually connects the sequence of elements and enriches the villa with a voyeuristic moment.

Project details

Built: 2002-2005
Location: Munich, Germany
Program: Private residence with studio and garage
Design team: Winy Maas, Jacob van Rijs, Nathalie de Vries, Carola Dietrich, Marc Feustel, Vanessa Carlow, Stefan de Koning and Chris Daehne and Benjamin Wiederock
Co-architects and site management: Stadler und Partner, Munich DE: Stuart Stadler and Michael Onischke with Andreas Selbertinger and Susi Felder
Landscape: Keller Landschaftsarchitekten, Munich DE
Services: TGA Büro Haff-Wiesmaier, Munich DE