With the intention of creating small city apartments, this was one of the first buildings ever erected exclusively for single residents. All the units have only one room, a small bathroom, and a small cooking area. The auxiliary spaces are small in comparison to the main living space. Each floor has ten apartments (eight with 32 sqm; the apartments on the northwestern and southeastern corners with 42 sqm). All apartments have a narrow balcony and large door windows, so that the living rooms have the feeling of sitting “outdoors” when opened. The apartments in the western tract were considered “masculine”: they have tripartite, room-high windows and only a kitchenette. In the eastern tract there are the “feminine” apartments with a small kitchen and bipartite door windows. The central stairwell links the two tracts. The recessed top floor is covered by a strong flat roof.
Finished in 1955, the all-concrete Giraffe building was the first building project of the Hansaviertel to be completed and was already occupied for the Interbau.
Building
- Solitary high-rise, 17 floors
- At its longest 50 m, width 21 m, height 53 m
- Floor plan in the shape of a Z
- From the first to the 16th floor each floor has ten apartments, eight with 32 sqm, two with 42 sqm
- Apartments on the western tract have a kitchenette, while the eastern tract apartments have small kitchens
- Entrance area with elevators, corridors, and stairwells links eastern and western tracts
- 17th floor recessed with communal rooms
- On the ground floor, the restaurant Giraffe
Construction
- Foundation on 240 wooden columns, each 4.5 meters long
- Cross wall construction of reinforced concrete: supporting walls 20 cm thick, from top to bottom
- Outer walls with insulation, non-bearing partitions with doorframes, plumbing, electrical wiring
- All parts of the building poured concrete, cast at the construction side
- Outer and inner walls without plaster
