Overbuilding Lee Side, Faulensee

The project
The Lee Side development in Faulensee near Spiez consists of two apartment buildings, each with three condominiums. The apartments have 3.5 to 5.5 rooms and are very generously equipped. All apartments offer an incomparable view of Lake Thun and the mountains of the Bernese Oberland. The large sliding glass doors contribute to the fact that the outside area practically merges with the interior. The jewel in the crown of each residential unit is the spacious, open-plan dining, cooking and living area, which flows seamlessly onto the balcony or into the garden. Except for the roof structures, the two buildings were constructed as solid structures. The gable roofs were constructed with panels of cross-laminated timber.

The construction method
The reason that the lighter building material wood was chosen for the roof structure: The large canopy was planned to cantilever about 2.5 m above the balconies. It is true that the Lee Side has supports on this side. However, they have no load-bearing function and are there purely for aesthetic reasons. In order to transfer the horizontal forces of the roof structure into the walls in the threshold area, steel plates were inserted into the concrete. Due to the specified smooth structure on the inside, the center purlins had to be integrated into the roof structure so that they could not be seen from below. The center purlins were constructed of block-bonded Kerto panels with support battens bonded to the sides, giving them high strength and rigidity. Thermal protection of the roof was solved with on-roof insulation. In the interior, the cross laminated timber boards of the roof were also clad with gypsum fiber boards.