The trapezoidal site is flanked to the south and west by housing blocks. To achieve the best possible compromise between the demands of privacy and orientation the dwelling units are organised in groups that are shifted in relation to each other with the units facing in different directions, which creates a compact, staggered volume. The access corridor makes a number of bends; at places it runs along an outside wall which allows the entry of daylight. By omitting four modules on the ground floor a covered entrance area could be created. The modules have a uniform width of 3.50 m and come in two different lengths. With a storey height of 2.75 m a clear ceiling height of 2.48 m could be achieved by minimising the floor thickness. The external end walls to the modules are divided into two: one half is glazed, the other is closed and provides space for a sliding shutter. The larch frame that surrounds the end walls makes the units clearly legible and lends the facade an almost Japanese severity. Apart from the reinforced concrete staircase tower all the structural parts are of bolted cross-laminated timber. Steel plates with welded connecting pins fix the stacked cubes in position. Double thickness wall panels and projecting floor slabs carry the corridor floors that were inserted later. Above the third storey the roof slabs of the modules have a built-in fall to avoid the difficulty of cutting the roof insulation on site.
The high degree of prefabrication allowed a short building time of c. two months from the delivery of the first modules to completion of the external envelope. In the context of the considerable urban density here perhaps the architects’ most significant achievement lies in using a repetitive building system to create well-proportioned urban spaces.
