6×60 House is a minimal residence located in Schwabhausen, Germany, designed by Alexander Tochtermann Architekten in collaboration with Philipp Wündrich Architekten. A one-story structure, 6×60 House is located next to a stream. It houses three flats of various sizes that belong to three separate family members. On one side, the building is surrounded by expansive agricultural fields and a distant forest, and on the other, the village’s main road. A system of piles has been employed to support the concrete slab, on which 21 parallel walls and a pitched roof are resting, in order to lift the house off the ground. Access to the porch on the platform is made possible by three concrete steps that are positioned along the south-east side. From the porch, one may stroll around the structure and enter the apartments.

In order to structurally support the house, give privacy to the bathrooms through their geometry, and transform a systematic approach into an individual collection of rooms that are spatially influencing one another, five of the twenty-one walls are constructed of dark grey concrete and have specific shapes. Massive prefabricated timber is used to construct the last 16 walls. Moving left or right, one enters each apartment from its center. Since there are no hallways, moving from the living areas to the private bedrooms requires moving through each room. To take advantage of the 5.5 meters of interior height at its highest, some of the rooms include a mezzanine. Although both facades of the 6×60 House are entirely made of glass sheets, the continuity of all the architectonic elements towards the exterior constantly prompts the question of whether one is living in an interior or exterior space. The sequence of various thresholds defines a buffer zone between the house and the surrounding area.

Photography by Mikael Olsson