This cost-minimised three-storey residential building, whose limitation to few materials went hand in hand with an optimisation of the range of possible uses, is part of a new settlement structure that was created in the district of Straßgang on the southern edge of Graz nearby the neighbouring municipality of Seiersberg. The end-to-end 50 and 75 m2 flats have a three-layer floor plan: the middle strip forms a service zone with wet room and kitchen, the outer layers are used for the other functions but have hardly any preordained uses. The rooms can be connected or separated by wide sliding doors, with folding doors in the service zone also regulating the degree of openness desired. Laconically minimised, the building stands on a concrete slab: no gardens or balconies were installed, but all windows are floor-to-ceiling, with French windows opening flat against the walls so that each room can be potentially reinterpreted as a recessed balcony. The sliding shutters of galvanised expanded metal in the east and nylon mesh in the west permit individual control of sunlight and screening and lend the façade line with inset staircases an appealing depth depending on incidence of light, time of day, and use.
