Duplex Architekten
Wohnungsbau neu denken
Duplex Architects, founded in 2007 in Zurich and with offices also in Düsseldorf, Hamburg, and, most recently, also in Paris, have gained an excellent reputation internationally for their designs of various scales and vast range of typologies.
This German language monograph on Duplex Architects’ work in Germany and Switzerland offers a close look at their approach to housing design. Five projects in Switzerland are documented extensively through a wealth of images, plans, and visualizations and exemplify the firm’s position on urban planning, typology research, and materiality and demonstrate their utterly independent way of working.
Urban scale, search for new forms of communal living, the importance of community and a collaborative design process are at the core of Duplex Architects’ considerations in residential architecture. Nele Dechmann’s text and Ludovic Balland’s photo essay both illuminate Duplex Architects’ work each in its own way. Further texts are contributed by the firm’s founding partners Anne Kaestle and Dan Schürch, as well as by other expert authors, who cast their own personal glance at the five projects featured in this book.
«Seine Relevanz bezieht das Buch dabei weniger aus der gewohnt PR-affinen Selbstdarstellung, sondern ob der Kraft der Projekte. Ludovic Balland und Nele Dechmann dokumentieren hier, wie es Anne Kaestle, Dan Schürch und ihren Teams immer wieder gelingt, Architektur zu entwickeln, die kraftvoll und selbstverständlich im Dienst der Bewohnerinnen und Bewohner steht und das, obschon sie selbst oft genug in Kontexten verortet ist, an denen ‹alles zu spät› ist, wie Niklas Maak in seinem Text schreibt. Hier wird deutlich, welche Wirkmacht Architektur haben kann, wenn ihre Stärken von fähigen Gestaltern ausgespielt werden.» David Kasparek, marlowes.de
«Exceptional graphics, and a clear sense of purpose, make each of the projects very clear and very compelling. It is the vast task of Rethinking Housing.» Peter Miller Architectural & Design Books and Supplies, Seattle