Berlin architect László Ambrus was commissioned by friends to design a family home at the apex of a quiet, semicircular street in Munich. Its exposed position may be one reason why he chose to divide the structure into a “heavy” section and a “light” section. The severity of the exposed concrete contrasts with the “lightness” of the glass and textile facade. The textile covering and the integrated Warema window awnings give the house an unmistakeable “face”: the graphic print of tree shadows helps it to blend in perfectly with its wooded surroundings.
Once conceived as garden cities, these residential areas in urban Munich are now experiencing significant change; living space is scarce and land prices are high. A catalogue of measures from the City of Munich with guidelines for designing and planning free space aim to help retain their character despite redensification. These areas typically also feature wide spaces between buildings, deep front gardens, public green spaces and an old tree population, characteristics that are worth maintaining.
Berlin architect László Ambrus planned the family home in the south of Munich after being commissioned by friends. Completed in 2022, the building can be viewed in precisely this context: a garden city originating from the 1930s that has grown over time. The two-storey, flat-ceilinged structure stands at the apex of a semicircular residential street, which borders a public green space filled with trees. The building is largely surrounded by detached houses, some recently built and some from previous decades.
House as mediator
The new house has taken on a “mediating” role in urban development. The house to one side has been built right on the street-side boundary, while the other is set back around 3.5 metres. The new house “balances out” this difference, in that it is neither too close to the street or far away. This allows space for a small front garden typical of these residential areas.
The view from the street perfectly reflects the concept behind the house’s design: it shows the flow of the semicircular streetscape with two different halves turned slightly towards one another. The northern section is constructed from insulating concrete, the ground floor clad in brass. This half of the building seems compact, enclosed, “steadfast”. The “light” southern half is enclosed in room-height glazing at street level with a printed textile covering on the first floor. The 25-metre-long piece of grey-green weatherproof fabric that winds around the entire southern half of the house features a tree-shadow graphic print. The fabric is held by vertical rails at the corners of the building and two horizontal guide rails along the parapet wall and the glazing on the ground floor. The fabric sits around 15 cm in front of the load-bearing structure and the glass skin. The building fans out to the garden, following the trapezoidal shape of the site. The monolithic structure protrudes around 2 metres in front of the “lighter” section.
The material language of the exterior continues into the 300 square metres of the interior: the floors are made of polished screed, the walls of exposed concrete, and the curtains are the same shade as the material covering the facade. The ground floor, spacious and open, can be interpreted as a continuation of the space. It houses the foyer with walk-in wardrobe, the eating and living area, and an open staircase. In the middle of this level, the architect has placed the open kitchen island clad in polished liquid metal with fittings of black stained wood (moor oak). The upper floor contains the parents’ and children’s rooms, the bathrooms and an open gallery with a work space. In the basement, the architect has constructed a guest apartment that can be turned into a fitness zone once the children have flown the nest.
Facades as projection surface
While the neighbouring buildings are reflected in the glass facade, the textile skin and the integrated Warema window awnings with easyZIP guidance give the impression of reflecting the shadows of the surrounding trees. “The idea of the shadow print is for the building to blend in with the wooded surroundings as unobtrusively as possible, despite its dominance”, the owner explains. WAREMA enabled this concept to be implemented to the letter.
For this highly individual solution, the same fabric was used for the covering and the window awnings, always in the same shade. Furthermore, both surfaces are pattern-matched to blend together seamlessly. When the window awnings are lowered, it really does look as though the building is covered in shadows.
Warema, the sun shading specialist, implemented this large-scale digital print on the awning fabric as a custom solution that met the architect’s specifications. The window awning creates a harmonious overall appearance while offering reliable and stylish sun shading. Particularly in the warm summer months, the sun shading doesn’t just protect against glare; it also helps to keep the rooms pleasantly cool. Avoiding overheating – combined with a ventilation system – reduces general cooling costs and the need for air conditioning. Effective summer heat protection promotes well-being as well as increasing energy efficiency and helping to protect the climate. Thanks to the integrated easyZIP guidance, the window awnings also offer excellent wind stability, allowing them to be used for sun shading and privacy in almost any weather.
In this house, high functionality and strong design go hand in hand.
Construction details
Building: House in Munich
Location: Munich, Germany
Owner: Private
Architecture/planning: ambrus+co plan.werk gmbh, Berlin, Germany,
https://ambrusco.de/
Textile facade: NAROSKA Design graphic design agency, Berlin, Germany
TYPICO GmbH, Lochau, Austria,
Landscape planning: franziska meyer-fey landschaftsarchitektur, Herrsching, Germany,
https://meyer-fey.de
Awning implementation: Weigl, Meitingen, Germany
Completed: 2022
Sun shading: WAREMA window system awning with easyZIP guidance
The garden city concept was easy to implement due to the generous scale of the site and its perfect orientation. But it was challenging to adhere to the required boundaries and the lines of direction from the historic land-use plan, which assumes that individual houses will be significantly smaller, as they were when it was drawn up. Thanks to innovative technological developments, we overcame the climatic challenges well with high architectural standards, as demonstrated by the side of the facade with the Warema window awnings. They perfectly complemented the innovative infra-lightweight concrete.
My architecture is always the result of a process. Naturally, this is determined by the owners first and foremost. In this project, everyone involved was willing to work together intensively to weave together as many of the issues as possible, even if they sometimes seemed irreconcilable. We needed to make the rooms spacious, open and close to nature while also creating a pleasant atmosphere in which the family would feel secure and comfortable. In addition to the construction aspects, our main concern was for the building to blend in with its surroundings as much as possible, despite its dimensions. It occurred to us that we should think about the facade as one unit, and not as a series of individual elements. Why should an awning only work in front of a traditional window? This approach encouraged us all to be brave, which I was very pleased to see.
The owners and the planning team entrusted the implementation to TYPICO GmbH in Lochau, Austria. We worked with NAROSKA Design, a graphic design agency in Berlin, to find the right design. Ultimately, we found digital options enormously helpful in perfecting this idea. I’m extremely grateful to everyone involved!
What definitely made this project special was the deep and trusting relationship that the owners and I have developed over the decades. Unlike a normal project, our collaboration and joint efforts to create the perfect house weren’t limited to the phases of the official scale of fee for services by architects and engineers. We didn’t commission separate interior designers. The rooms were designed largely in line with the ideas and expectations of the family, sometimes guided by individual furniture designs. The technical details were coordinated intensively by the architects in charge of the plans and construction and the specialist companies involved.
In this project, the word “awnings” encompasses the complex system of a textile facade covering. They don’t just protect the large windows on the upper floor against direct heat incidence from the sun; they also protect the other enclosed, heat-insulated concrete walls. As a consequence, these materials don’t heat up as much as they would without shading. As extreme weather events become more frequent, even the best shading solutions sometimes reach their limits as they try to maintain a pleasant indoor temperature. Long periods of heat mean that opening the windows at night only cools things down a little. However, the textile facade has minimised the need for additional temperature control.
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The architect divided the structure into a “heavy” section with insulating concrete and a “light” section with a glass and textile facade.
The integrated window awnings with easyZIP guidance ensure a harmonious overall look to the facade.
The building opens out to the garden. The monolithic structure protrudes around 2 metres past the “light” section.
On the upper floor, a printed textile covering made from grey-green weather-proof material is stretched in front of the glass.
Perfectly integrated into the surroundings: the covering and integrated window awnings feature a tree-shadow pattern.
The awnings don’t just provide reliable sun shading – they are also extremely stylish.
More than just glare protection: in the summer months, the sun shading keeps the rooms nice and cool.
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