<Extension „DAHEIM und Zwiebacki“, Malters, 2012–2016

The DAHEIM housing, built in Malters in 1909 according to the plans of Johann Bucher, was extended in 1921 by a monumental complex in the style of late classicism by Armin Meili. The small housing estate, which initially remained open on three sides, is placed in direct connection with the field of detached, mostly wooden, rural-looking houses by the bonacasa settlement Zwiebacki. The new houses made of dark wood are larger and lie offset to the axially symmetrical basic figure. Inside the buildings are apartments on each floor or maisonettes, which are aligned on three sides. The old HUG production building is replaced by a large office and residential building with a bend.

The Meili complex, consisting of a monumental main body, two portal houses and two pavilions, did not previously appear to be connected to the nearby rural-looking residential houses and their wooden facades. The figure of the strictly symmetrically arranged residential colony DAHEIM and the later residential houses were to become rich in relationships when they were extended again. In the design plan for the DAHEIM and Zwiebacki expansion in 2007, the solid buildings were therefore already planned with wooden facades - as an approximation to the heterogeneity of the existing buildings. They make the buildings of Meili stand out even more. The new buildings of Zwiebacki do not appear unfamiliar between the surroundings and the settlement DAHEIM, although they change the place by a leap in scale.

While in the past, subsidised housing alone was the focus of attention in Malters, which has seven thousand inhabitants, the high-quality construction of the four new multi-family houses with apartments of different sizes and office and service areas on the ground floor, for the first time also addressed other, higher standards. In general, the client’s striving for sustainability was based on a barrier-free and environmentally compatible construction method.

The largest of the four new buildings was moved in place of the former production building. It directly adjoins the new roundabout. In the central axis, the building reacts with the kink. The variety of visual references to the outside space was an important criterion in the design of the new buildings. Most of the apartments could be aligned to several sides. Their loggias are each cut out of the building volume along the width of the living space and arranged in an offset manner. All four new residential buildings have a recessed attic storey with generous roof terraces.