'Haus, Hof, Garten' : Between Dom and River

ERFURT, THÜRINGEN

The project for a new housing development at the Dom in Erfurt called for a careful piece urban repair in a very special context.  The site stands within the medieval old town of the city of Erfurt immediately adjacent to the Dom and bordering the main city square and the somewhat smaller river.  Our start point was a detailed study of the building and spatial structures, patterns and typologies throughout the old city, with particular reference to the ‘Höfe’ (courtyards) that characterise the urban fabric there.  Our design is based upon this intimate idea of the ‘Hof’ or series of ‘Höfe’ that eat out and define the building mass of the block.  It is the intimate and ‘foundspace’ characteristics of the these ‘Höfe’ as the lead, half-hidden, from one to the next that provides the old town, and our proposals, with their character.