Houzz Tour: House Stays on Budget Thanks to Industrial Materials
Architects choose corrugated sheet metal and polycarbonate sheeting to cover a new family home in Germany
These clients asked the architects at Büro für Bauform to build a house on a budget of only about $350,000. And that wasn’t the only constraint: They also gave the architects the building regulations for the town of Pirna, just outside Dresden, Germany, where the home was to be built. The rules stipulated that houses in this area have a minimum eave height of just under 16½ feet and a minimum garage eave height of just under 10 feet.
They could have built a home with a flat roof, but then the house would have looked out of place in its environment. So the architects explored other ways to save and eventually found the answer in industrial construction, which has the lowest cost per square foot. With a lot of brain work and some unexpected materials like polycarbonate sheeting and corrugated sheet metal, they created a three-section house entirely within the budget for pure construction costs.
They could have built a home with a flat roof, but then the house would have looked out of place in its environment. So the architects explored other ways to save and eventually found the answer in industrial construction, which has the lowest cost per square foot. With a lot of brain work and some unexpected materials like polycarbonate sheeting and corrugated sheet metal, they created a three-section house entirely within the budget for pure construction costs.
The vaulted ceiling of the central section opens up all the way to the roof ridge. “The sunroom allows for sufficient air circulation, so we didn’t have to install a ventilation system,” Lehmeier says.
If there is enough sun, the air warms up to a comfortable temperature even in winter, while in summer, roof windows installed on the north side ensure that it doesn’t get too hot. The windows are equipped with a temperature sensor and open automatically when ventilation is needed. Thanks to a rain and wind monitor, they close on their own when it starts to rain or the wind is too strong. “Even in the technical aspects, we went for high comfort at low costs,” Lehmeier says.
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If there is enough sun, the air warms up to a comfortable temperature even in winter, while in summer, roof windows installed on the north side ensure that it doesn’t get too hot. The windows are equipped with a temperature sensor and open automatically when ventilation is needed. Thanks to a rain and wind monitor, they close on their own when it starts to rain or the wind is too strong. “Even in the technical aspects, we went for high comfort at low costs,” Lehmeier says.
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The two sections of the house that flank the sunroom are built out of stone and have a rain screen made of corrugated sheet metal. The rain gutters and downspouts are invisibly integrated into the facade. The architects deliberately made the sections look monolithic. For example, they mounted the corrugated sheet metal with screws that are powder-coated the same color as the sheet to get as uniform a look as possible.
The garage is nestled to one side of the sunroom and is the lowest and longest part of the building. The garage door is covered in polycarbonate sheeting. “At first, we wanted to install skylights into the corrugated sheet metal, but we found we didn’t like it that much. To let daylight into the garage, we chose a customizable standard garage door and mounted polycarbonate sheets onto it, so we immediately had insulation,” the architect says. In addition, this allowed them to save even more on cost.
At the end of the entryway, in the garage section, is the guest bathroom.
The garage is nestled to one side of the sunroom and is the lowest and longest part of the building. The garage door is covered in polycarbonate sheeting. “At first, we wanted to install skylights into the corrugated sheet metal, but we found we didn’t like it that much. To let daylight into the garage, we chose a customizable standard garage door and mounted polycarbonate sheets onto it, so we immediately had insulation,” the architect says. In addition, this allowed them to save even more on cost.
At the end of the entryway, in the garage section, is the guest bathroom.
The sunroom is next to the entryway. A staircase divides the public and the private areas of the home. “Architecture should direct movement,” Lehmeier says. “Guests should immediately realize where they’re allowed to enter and where they should only go with permission. Here, the staircase has this function. It both links to the [living room] and acts as part of it. Actually, someone is always sitting here or there is always something on it.”
The stairs lead to the landing and, from there, to the children’s room, the guest room and the adjoining bathroom, all of which are in the next section, which is the highest but narrowest part of the house.
Lehmeier is a skilled metalworker and designed the staircase himself. The steps are made of steel sheets (a little more than an eighth of an inch thick) that are welded to a beam. The handrail is simple steel, and the balustrade is made up of a clothesline reinforced with steel wire.
“Designing stairs is a hobby of mine,” Lehmeier says. “This handrail here is probably the cheapest I’ve ever come up with.”
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“Designing stairs is a hobby of mine,” Lehmeier says. “This handrail here is probably the cheapest I’ve ever come up with.”
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Behind the staircase is the kitchen-dining room. A corner window brings in daylight from two sides. It’s made up of a wood-and-aluminum frame and triple panes, just as all the windows in the house are.
On the north side of the sunroom is a box built out of a wood frame, which can be accessed by a door under the staircase. It contains the master suite’s bathroom and walk-in closet. This leads to the bedroom, which is in the next section, just behind the kitchen.
At first glance, the master bath appears to be an ordinary bathroom with a level entry shower and a freestanding bathtub. Here, too, nothing is as simple as it first seems. “The shower was one of the most complicated parts of the whole house,” Lehmeier says. Before pouring the floor slab, the architects had to determine exactly where and at what height the shower tray would be located. “So we cast a place holder into the concrete floor,” he says.
As with many industrial buildings, the floor slab in this house is, in fact, the finished floor, so they placed insulation inside the outer formwork to protect the slab. “Using cables, string and paint, we made markings for the placement of the walls and all the plumbing. It took a lot of persuasion to bring in the workmen in charge of these features because they normally only come to a construction site when the walls of the house are already up,” Lehmeier says.
As with many industrial buildings, the floor slab in this house is, in fact, the finished floor, so they placed insulation inside the outer formwork to protect the slab. “Using cables, string and paint, we made markings for the placement of the walls and all the plumbing. It took a lot of persuasion to bring in the workmen in charge of these features because they normally only come to a construction site when the walls of the house are already up,” Lehmeier says.
At last, the plumbers and electricians came to install the pipes, wiring and underfloor heating before the concrete was poured. Finally, the concrete surface was smoothed and floated, and then covered to protect it until the work on the house was done.
The builders glued artificial turf on the back wall of the platform to create an opaque privacy screen.
“We tried our hand at a lot of things that are actually only done in industrial construction, a form of construction in which people have little aspiration to aesthetics,” Lehmeier says. “Architects have to learn to transfer these methods over in an aesthetic way, to make housing construction cheaper.”
How to Add a Radiant Heat System
The builders glued artificial turf on the back wall of the platform to create an opaque privacy screen.
“We tried our hand at a lot of things that are actually only done in industrial construction, a form of construction in which people have little aspiration to aesthetics,” Lehmeier says. “Architects have to learn to transfer these methods over in an aesthetic way, to make housing construction cheaper.”
How to Add a Radiant Heat System
Ground-floor layout
The north side of the ground floor has windows. So the laundry room, utility room and guest bathroom, all of which are in the garage section, get daylight.
The north side of the ground floor has windows. So the laundry room, utility room and guest bathroom, all of which are in the garage section, get daylight.
Second-floor layout
The box we saw in the sunroom serves as a library on the second floor. The ceilings of the two bedrooms open all the way up to the roof level. The bathroom (between the two rooms) has a dropped ceiling that provides additional storage space.
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The box we saw in the sunroom serves as a library on the second floor. The ceilings of the two bedrooms open all the way up to the roof level. The bathroom (between the two rooms) has a dropped ceiling that provides additional storage space.
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Find an architect for your project on Houzz
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House at a Glance
Who lives here: A family of three
Location: Pirna, Germany
Size: 1,938 square feet (180 square meters); three bedrooms, 2½ bathrooms
Architect: Büro für Bauform
This home consists of three gabled sections standing side by side, with each one rising to a different height and featuring an eye-catching facade. The section on the left and the garage on the right are covered in a rain screen made of corrugated sheet metal. The walls and roof of the central section, which hosts the living room, are polycarbonate, making it look like a sunroom. A wooden structure supports the sheets, which are about 2⅓ inches thick and fixed in place with thermally broken frames — that is, frames in which thermally nonconductive material separates the indoor and the outdoor parts to stop heat from escaping.
Polycarbonate is a relatively cheap material often used for building industrial warehouses. “The sheets are very light. We fastened them with wind anchors to prevent them from being blown away, even in strong winds,” says Jürgen Lehmeier, one of the architects on the project.