The Gutstrasse is object to a masterplan foreseeing the demolition of the existing after-war emergency housings and its replacement by buildings aiming for a greater density, diversity, and comfort.

The project investigates the parcel at the crossing of the Gutstrasse and the Triemlifussweg as a case study for the adaptation of the existing instead of its demolition. The proposal consists in the overlay of drawn possibilities for these houses, which eventually led to the following interventions, all aiming for a communal living with smaller private surface per inhabitant and generous shared spaces:

The attached pavilion on the side of the Gutstrasse, currently used as housing and garages, is opened, and converted into a common kitchen for the community with a terrace on the sidewalk of the Gutstrasse, accessible by the public.

The existing apartments for nuclear families are partly converted into cluster apartments with shared toilets. A new facade extends the rooms with winter gardens. The apartments are linked with circulation galleries on the side of the interior courtyard, wide enough to be the stage of social interaction between the community’s neighbors. The attics, now used as storage, receive a new roof to house shared living spaces.

The additional building also houses a shared kitchen on the ground floor and a shared living room under the roof. The apartments structure diversifies the types of dwellings of the rest of housing, proposing double-height apartments to which can be annexed minimal units by opening a garage-door-like wall partition if needed. The building also features a lift that allows people with disabilities to access their apartments without the need to walk upstairs, as it is the case with the existing lifts.

The interstitial green space, nowadays empty and unused, is activated by the galleries and the community around it, and finds one of the purposes it was originally designed for, a community garden. For that use, water is collected from the roofs with hanging gutters that let it flow down to Justinas Zuklys’ water silos positioned at the side of the courtyard.