Swedish architecture studio Arklab has completed a pair of "sibling" houses in the German town of Heidelberg that feature unique angled forms to ensure they do not overlook one another.
The Stockholm-based practice was approached by a couple in their sixties who wanted to develop a proposal for a home to retire in, as well as an adjacent property that they could rent out.

The brief suggested that the buildings should be related in style and construction method but employ a free geometry to create different forms in response to their position on the site.
"The idea was to create sibling houses: two houses that had many properties in common yet still maintained their distinct and individual spatial identities," Arklab explained. "The same DNA, yet not identical."
A narrow site, which slopes from one end to the other, made it difficult to situate the buildings in such a way that they don't directly face each other.
The solution was to start with a pair of simple blocks and splice away sections from the edges to create surfaces oriented in various directions to optimise the available sunlight and views.

In addition to preventing a direct sightline between the houses, the angled cuts applied to the volumes create private spaces that accommodate terraces around the perimeter.
The architects and clients agreed on a material expression and construction method that focuses on utilising concrete and wood in their raw state.

Both buildings feature a ...