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An Office Tops House O by Peter Ruge Architekten

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Peter Ruge Architekten designed this three story concrete and glass home and top floor office or studio with its own entrance, in Pottsdam-Mittelmark, Germany.

The north and south elevations are fully glazed, while the sides are constructed of precast concrete like a commercial building.

In order to access the top floor office directly from the street, a metal sided exterior stair goes the full height of the house.

From this end, the private garden side, the house and studio office appears to be four stories, but it is deceptive.

A closer look reveals that the bottom story is two stories tall in front, and includes a mezzanine floor in back, which holds the dining room and kitchen.

The plan shows the three floors and the mezzanine.

Up mezzanine stairs from the living room, the kitchen and dining room occupy the mezzanine space.

The living room is on the ground floor with two stories open to the south so sunlight floods in.

In the ground floor living room, an unusual fireplace has a huge slab of metal on the wall.

All of the house is finished in the most spartan precast concrete and fully glazed walls of glass for an orderly and uncompromising minimalism.

Oddly, each floor, even the 3rd floor with the bedrooms, is accessible from the outside stair, so it acts as a fire escape, which does not seem necessary in a fireproof building.

This is the 4th floor plan.

Elsewhere, House O is described as a block of 3 flats, but in fact it has only two kitchens, and this is the second one, a very rudimentary kitchen.

So it is only usable as a live/work family home, with an open loft type of space on the top floor for the family business -that perhaps could be rented separately, either as an office or dance studio, or as the most bare bones living loft.