Invited Competition, awarded Honorable Mention.

The competition called for 170 new housing units on Strubergasse, a street near the perimeter of a residential neighborhood in the Lehen district of Salzburg. Lehen is a high-density area with a predominantly immigrant population. It has a strong infrastructural base and is close to the center of the city. Our plan employs the historic “closed block” (Blockrandbebauung) design, with residential buildings ringing a shared courtyard, in a subtle manner: Though the building still separates the courtyard from the street, it also frames it and allows passageway for the public, turning a private courtyard into a public space.

The five-story building is folded, breaking up an otherwise flat, wall-like mass; this folding is also reflected in the landscape design, with gardens and paths folded into each other. The floor plan is totally flexible for the needs of different types of residents. Each apartment has a balcony. There is extra bicycle parking close to the entrances. Ground-floor apartments have private gardens. Overall, the project reimagines a traditional housing model for the twenty-first century, using public, semipublic, and private green areas to weave together this dense neighborhood.