A small studio that draws additions to an existing city
Leipzig is mostly built. Its Gründerzeit blocks, factory halls and gap sites are the ground we work on. Our job is the part that comes next: a timber attic on a tenement, a house in a gap, a small block of flats in cross-laminated timber.
On a permit drawing, what exists is grey, what is torn out is yellow and what is new is red. We have built the studio around that code. We start with the street as it stands, take out as little as we can, and add timber where the city has room for it.
- Grey
- what stands
- Yellow
- what comes out
- Red
- what we add
Jana Krüger and three architects
Four architects is the size we want to be. It means the people who measure your roof in the first week are the people who draw the panels and stand on site when they arrive.
- Jana KrügerArchitect, leads the studioSets the direction of every project and talks to clients from the first site visit onwards.
- Three architectsDesign, permit and construction drawings, site supervisionNames and profiles to follow.
Grey, yellow, red: how a project moves through the drawing
Every project we take on passes through the three colours of the permit drawing, in that order. The colours are how we think, and they are how you will see the work on paper.
Grey: what is already there
Before we draw anything new, we draw what stands. The existing building and its neighbours set the limits for everything that follows.
- Measured survey of the building, roof and plot
- Reading the old structure: walls, ceilings, what the masonry can carry
- Planning law, neighbours, light and the street line
Yellow: what comes out
We remove as little as we can. Yellow is kept for the things that have to go to make room for the new, and every yellow line on the drawing has to justify itself.
- Old roof trusses and coverings where an attic storey goes on
- Partitions and chimney stacks that block the new plan
- Sequencing removal so people can keep living below
Red: what we add
The new part is drawn in timber from the start. Walls, floors and roof are planned as cross-laminated panels, so the drawing we hand to the timber builder is the building that arrives on site.
- Design and permit drawings for the new storey or house
- Panel layout coordinated with the timber builder
- Site supervision until the red part is built and handed over
Why cross-laminated timber
Cross-laminated timber is made of spruce boards laid in layers, each layer turned ninety degrees to the one below. The result is a solid panel that works as wall, floor or roof. For a studio that builds on top of and between existing buildings, it solves the problems we meet most often.
- Light on old walls
- A timber storey weighs far less than one in concrete or brick, which is often what makes an attic addition possible on a Gründerzeit building at all.
- Made off site
- Panels are cut in the workshop to our drawings and lifted into place. The roof is open for a short time and the residents below have less noise and dust.
- Dry construction
- No long drying times for screed and masonry. The building can be closed against the weather quickly.
- Timber you can live with
- Where fire rules allow, the panel surface stays visible inside: warm, quiet rooms with the structure on show.
- Carbon held in the wall
- Timber stores the carbon the tree took up, for as long as the building stands.
Working from Plagwitz
Plagwitz was Leipzig's industrial district: brick factories, canals and railway sidings. Over the past decades it has been converted one building at a time, a loft in a mill, a gallery in a hall, new houses on old yards. That is the kind of change we want to be part of.
Working here keeps us close to the buildings we draw. Most of our projects are a bike ride away, so site visits are part of an ordinary week, not an occasion.
If you own a roof, a gap site or a building that could take one more storey, tell us what is there now. We start with the grey.