Dupli Casa Remembers its Past |
Thursday, 09 October 2008 |
Dupli Casa, a private residence by the Neckar river, near the old
town of Marbach in South- Western Germany, is a wonderfull example of
connection and fluidity. It connects the inside with the outside, up
with down, air with ground and — most cleverly — past with present and
even future.
From the outside, the three-storey concrete villa looks like a bit like
some sort of a fiberglass motorboat job gone funny, yet it also manages
to look immensely appealing and intriguing. From some angles, the
structure appears to be standing upside down — the lower exterior rim
spilling onto the lawn and forming a part of a roof structure, if the
building were to stand the other way around. It could have been blown
there by the wind; it could be a StarWarsian vehicle frozen in place;
it could be just taking off to outer space.
The outdoor swimming pool and the white surface surrounding it seem
like a perfect reflection of the house, almost as if the house had been
face down on the ground, and when it was lifted off the ground, the
process had left an imprint of a swimming pool on the ground and the
large window opening in the house.
The views from the inside are amazing, especially from the vast
ground-level openings that again, give the sensation of flying, being
airborne, weightlessness. Everything is fluid, flowing and smooth.
All
of this is very much in keeping with the main inspiration for the
house. The new residence follows the footprint of the previous dwelling
and its numerous extensions. The idea was to let the “family
archaeology” continue in the new building. It’s a house that remembers
its beginnings in 1984 yet projects boldly into the future.
Dupli Casa is the work of Jürgen Mayer H., founder and principal of his cross-disciplinary studio. J. Mayer H. Architekten
in Berlin. Other team members include Georg Schmidthals, Thorsten
Blatter and Simon Takasak, plus Uli Wiesler’s architecture studio based
in Stuttgart. - Tuija Seipell
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