Studio Kotorre
05 University project

Leaving No Trace(s)

The stoa: the corridor shared by the residents
01The stoa: the corridor shared by the residents
Location
Freiham, Munich
Programme
Housing in three linear buildings of 40 to 70 metres, with a communal workshop, next to a school
Construction
Light timber frames on point-supported stone foundations · rammed earth towers
Course
Technical University of Munich, Prof. Krucker and Prof. Bates
By
Tassilo de la Torre

A self-built wooden framework invites the residents to shape their own homes, guided by clear manuals and supported by a communal workshop. The manuals simplify a range of housing types, all derived from the Greek stoa: a long semi-public corridor where communal life happens, while the private apartments open quietly towards the park. These corridors and mezzanines belong to the residents alone.

Three linear buildings, between 40 and 70 metres long, frame the school site. The main building carries three upper floors over an open ground floor that can be opened completely; the other two have two. The ground floors let indoor public space run straight into the garden and the school park, stitching together green spaces that had been left fractured.

Hard edges — the school fences above all — are softened by shaping the topography and placing the buildings so that the visual boundaries blur. The light timber structures rest on point-supported stone foundations and barely touch the earth. Rammed earth towers weather away slowly. The buildings are meant to dissolve over time and return to the landscape leaving as little as possible behind.