Weimar, Das 100

The requirements for contemporary and sustainable building are complex. The IBA project ›Das 100‹ playfully takes up this challenge in its name. Ideally, sustainability, ecology, social responsibility, affordability, and design excellence should be met 100%.

The occasion for this project is the planning and construction of a new building for student housing in a special location in Weimar. Located in close proximity to Georg Muche's House am Horn from 1923, the urban development area ›Neues Bauen am Horn‹ is an acknowledged example of good building culture.

The design convinced the jury by combining a robust basic structure in sustainable solid wood construction with the development of an experimental living form, the so-called ›Allmendewohnen‹. It consists of a communal hall and eight 2.1-meter-wide and ten-meter-deep rooms with large windows facing the hall.

In the course of further development, the housing forms were differentiated, ranging from efficient two-person apartments to single apartments as living studios where the requirements for living and working can be combined. The seven-story new building convinced the jury not only with its ›inner values‹ but also with its special artistic expression, visible, for example, in the cantilevered, expressive staircase towards Carl-Alexander-Platz.

In the further planning process, the special floor plan of the planned student residence with its slim and tall rooms was implemented and discussed on a 1:1 scale. Future users were intensively involved in the development process. For example, the project was the subject of a design project by the Chair of Design and Housing Construction at the Bauhaus University Weimar in 2018. In the further process, students at the Bauhaus University playfully explored the possibilities and limitations of the designed floor plan structure under the direction of Almannai Fischer. The insights gained flowed directly into the project development.

After clarifying financing and approval issues, the project is in the final planning phase, and construction is expected to begin in the current year 2023, enriching the attractive study location Weimar with Thuringia's tallest wooden residential building.