Elissa and Alvar Aalto designed a twenty-two-storey apartment block, also known as Neue Vahr High-rise Residential Building, built in a suburb of Bremen. The sketches show several variants for the building’s irregular fan plan.

Built of prefabricated bituminous concrete blocks, the house contains nine small apartments per storey. The main feature is a large living room opening out in a V-shaped sector to a wholly glazed wall and a balcony facing west and screened off from the neighbours. This enables the residents to enjoy maximum daylight while at home. Lifts, stairwells, and airing balconies are on the narrow east side.

The building was intended for ‘social-collective living’, which is why each storey has a common room, a kind of collective living room. The roof storey has a club locale and a covered viewing terrace. The ground floor contains a free-form hall with an office and small shops for residents. Pedestrians have direct access to the district’s central square and to the house parking.

More information on Alvar Aalto Foundation website.