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(43,573 posts) Tue Mar 15, 2022, 01:19 AM Mar 2022

Inspired by its dramatic setting, two architects design an urban 'cabin in the woods' in East Berlin

https://www.themodernhouse.com/journal/cabin-the-woods-east-berlin-my-modern-house/

When designing a new project, many architects will hunt for clues in the surrounding landscape as their starting point. Local plants, landmarks and building materials can all inform the design process in wonderful and unexpected ways. For the creators of this family home in Berlin, a city with more green space than most, it was the tall fir trees dwarfing the existing house that provided the first sparks of inspiration. The owners, Oskar Söllner and Insa Wagner, work together as architects at their Berlin practice, Söllner Wagner, which designs a mix of residential and public projects. In 2013, they had found themselves in need of a new home after their rented apartment went on the market, a predicament familiar to many in Berlin.

The oversized fir trees that surrounded the house they found were the initial inspiration for what came to be known as the Waldhaus. Built in just one year, the project was an experiment in hand-building a sustainable timber house without a construction company. With its steep gable roof, black-painted larch walls and rustic setting, the Waldhaus now looks like something out of an urban fairytale. Here the couple share their experience of designing a family home, and the mix of cutting-edge, sustainable materials and traditional German craftsmanship that drove the build.

Oskar: “We weren’t planning to move but found ourselves thinking about a new home unexpectedly when we were told that our landlord wanted to sell up. We were living in an Altbau apartment built in the Gründerzeithaus, or Founders, period (1870-1914) in Pankow, which we had recently renovated. We had the option to either buy the apartment ourselves, or to stay on as tenants, most likely with increased rent. “However, the rent was already high and we wanted a garden and some more living space for our two young daughters.

So we started looking around for either a place to buy, or somewhere to build. We came across this block by chance while out walking one day, and quickly decided to buy it. “We had already designed many houses at our architectural practice, and renovated an old country house. We knew that this time we didn’t want to renovate yet again, but instead to try building a house ourselves from timber, with a garden-side studio. “The block is on a quiet street in Pankow, a characterful suburb in East Berlin with a mix of housing, including old villas, houses from the Thirties and post-war housing, with the Schonhausen Palace and parklands nearby. “The existing house wasn’t worth renovating, as it was very run down, but we liked the huge fir trees that surrounded it. These gave us the idea of designing a cabin in the woods, which we named the Waldhaus.”

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