House HSBW is a minimalist residence located in Heidelberg, Germany, designed by Simon Kochhan in collaboration with Florian Baller. Heidelberg’s Weststadt district presents a particularly charged urban condition: where the historic Bergfriedhof cemetery meets active railway infrastructure, a wedge-shaped plot mediates between memorialized stillness and industrial movement. House HSBW emerges from this threshold as an exercise in calibrated presence, addressing competing contexts through volumetric clarity rather than compromise. The project demonstrates how rigorous formal logic can generate architecture that engages its surroundings without mimicking them.
The building’s composition divides into two distinct elements that establish both grounding and shelter. A single-story timber-clad base reads as plinth, its vertical boarding creating rhythm and texture at street level. Above, an overhanging roof volume wrapped in silver standing-seam metal suggests lightness despite its scale, the reflective surface responding to shifting daylight and weather conditions. This separation of base and crown recalls the tectonic tradition of German modernism, yet the rounded western edge introduces a sculptural softness that acknowledges the angled street intersection without resorting to aggressive geometry. The continuous eave carries this rounded form into a smooth transition with the urban fabric, while the eastern facade’s rendered surface and accentuated entrance provide a more conventional address to neighboring residential buildings.
Inside, the architecture subverts initial expectations. What appears as symmetrical entry organization unfolds into a deliberately asymmetric spatial sequence, where circulation becomes a tool for choreographing domestic experience. Carefully positioned openings channel natural light deep into the plan, transforming what could be a dark, introverted volume into a series of illuminated thresholds. The slight depression of the ground floor establishes the communal zone as a gathered space, while the upper level compresses private functions into efficient arrangement. Two double-height voids puncture this horizontal division, creating visual and spatial connections that prevent the modest 100-square-meter program from feeling compartmentalized.
Material choices reinforce structural legibility. Timber frame construction with recycled insulation and wood fiber boards forms the building envelope, an approach that prioritizes both environmental responsibility and construction efficiency. The exposed concrete base anchors the structure to its site, while polished screed flooring throughout provides a continuous, reflective surface that amplifies available light. Timber windows fitted with external protective frames acknowledge the building’s exposure to railway activity and cemetery proximity, while uniformly blue-painted steel elements punctuate neutral surfaces with moments of precise color. The handcrafted spiral staircase exemplifies this approach, transforming a functional necessity into a sculptural gesture that reveals the project’s commitment to careful fabrication.
