Building of the week

Because of its low weight, wood is almost always the right choice of building material for additions. The fast and low-noise construction method with wood is convincing for extensions and conversions. englerarchitekten gmbh sia have renovated a garage and workshop building on Giessliweg in Basel and added three storeys (coloured background). They used a lot of wood in the process, and they have dealt with the special urban planning situation in the best possible way.

Sound measurements prove the clean execution of the construction work

For the construction of the storey ceilings, hollow box elements with a spilt filling and mineral wool in the ceiling element were chosen. These wooden ceilings remain visible in the flats and give the rooms a pleasant, homely atmosphere. The construction also performs very well in terms of sound insulation.

Acoustic measurements prove that the increased requirements are met in this building. On the one hand, this testifies to a good construction of the ceiling, and on the other hand, to a clean execution of the construction work. If buildings have ringing, this is often due to poor workmanship. This is because sound seeks its way through leaky joints, fasteners that have been driven in too deeply or incorrectly installed setting strips of underlay floors.

Swiss-architects.com chose the extension

Swiss-architects.com chose the Giessliweg extension in Basel as Building of the Week. In this context, they conducted an interview with the architect Thorsten Kuhny and portray the building in detail. You can find the whole interview here. Below is an excerpt from the interview.

Mr Kuhny, what is special about this building project?

Based on a potential and feasibility study, the client expressed the wish to exploit the use reserves of their plot as far as possible. The most promising solution was to retain the existing two-storey garage and workshop building and to add a storey.

The result is barrier-free flats of various sizes that appeal to both younger and older tenants.

Did current energy, construction or design trends influence the project?

The ecological advantages of timber construction, especially in combating climate change, are undisputed - however, the use of wood as a façade material in an urban context is still new and unusual in the Giessliweg extension project. It was important for us to show with this project that renovation can be much more than just optimising thermal insulation. Rather, it is possible to achieve sustainable improvements in terms of the usability of the living space, summer thermal insulation and ecology as a whole.

Which product or material contributed to the success of the completed building?

Wood lent itself as a building material not only because of its ecological advantages, but also because of its light weight. As already mentioned, the timber construction should be visible to the outside in the urban context and be legible in order to make the building's construction history visible. For this reason, wood was used as a façade material and also for the floor coverings of the terraces and balconies.

We installed colour-coordinated zip fabric blinds in front of all the windows on the residential floors to provide privacy and protection from the sun, enabling the residents to control the views in a targeted manner and to adapt them to their respective needs during the course of the day. For example, the street-facing bay window on the 2nd and 3rd floors can be a viewing pulpit during the day and an intimate retreat within the flat in the evening.