Apartment design: One may dream

The Palmaille is one of the oldest boulevards in Hamburg. Shipowners and merchants built their representative townhouses in the spacious avenue. From many points, the view is clear of passing ships and the port of Hamburg. So also from the barely ten meters wide, sloping plot on which a Hamburg entrepreneur in 2016 fulfilled her dream home.

Following the example of the "one-window house" by the Danish architect Christian Frederik Hansen (1756-1845), whose classicist style still determines the cityscape of Hamburg between Altona and Blankenese, a four-storey residential and commercial building was built. It was designed by the Hamburg architect Walter Gebhardt.

The building fits in harmoniously between the stately mansions from the Wilhelminian era left and right. No easy task, the road is ensemble protected. Form language, material, scale and coloring are given. Just for the façade, a number of proposals were necessary until the authorities agreed. But after all, preservation permits a reinterpretation of essential features of the historical environment. Walter Gebhardt translated the classic symmetrical tripartite division of the facades into a modern architectural language.

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Because an exemption was impossible as Hansen's house, Gebhardt chose glass joints on the sides to the neighboring houses. As a result, the concrete facade of the monolithic building stands out visually. An oversized entrance portal and a large shop window form the interface between inside and outside. As with the example - which is also located in the Palmaille near the new building - the building is subdivided into the basement, main and attic floors. The required pitched roof was converted into a large glass surface, which blends seamlessly into the actual roof, which is invisible from the street.

Since the house is located on a main thoroughfare, the areas had to be arranged wisely. The owner should be able to enjoy the unobstructed view of the Elbe, but have their rest in front of the cars. The ground floor therefore only serves as a transit area from which parking spaces and the central staircase can be reached by a lift. A rented office space on the first floor forms the transition between street space and the private apartment.

The center of the second floor is a living space extending over two floors, whose generous "single window" both gives the view of the Elbe and can be used as a piece of furniture. In the rear part of the building facing away from the street there is a guest apartment with two bedrooms, a kitchenette and a bathroom accessible from two sides. As in the rest of the house, wood and muted colors dominate here, and the floor and walls in the guest bathroom are tiled with glass mosaics.

Millimeter work in the sleeping area

Next door is the sleeping area of ​​the main apartment. The planning was millimeter work. There had to be room for a bed, walkways and a bathroom with a free-standing bath and shower. In the end, only one and a half meters were left for the bathroom. However, "you do not need large rooms for a great room effect," says Nicole Stammer. The interior designer solved the challenge with a fake, she divided the room into the areas of "main bathroom" with shower and vanity and "rest bath" with the tub directly in front of the window front. The surfaces are separated by a transverse bathroom furniture. So the hostess can look from any position in the mirror or in the green.

In the attic there is the five meter high living area with kitchen and dining area. A roof terrace extends the interior to the outside. Gebhardt cleverly arranged the functional areas and thus optimally exploited the actually scarce area. When choosing the materials, the architect also showed a clear sense of quality of living: concrete for the façade, an individual sand-colored terrazzo mixture for the floors, a natural, fine plaster on walls and ceilings as well as walnut wood for the various fittings and doors. The highlight is the curved wooden slat ceiling, which also acts as a sound absorber. An absolutely round thing.