Japan in the Uckermark region: Holiday home in Pinnow

Uckermark is one of Germany's most sparsely settled regions, and it is probably for this reason that more and more people are discovering the moraine landscape of gently rolling hills and scattered lakes as a holiday destination. The lakeside property at the edge of Pinnow, where Thomas Kröger Architects has executed its latest project, possesses almost all the elements of the local landscape in miniature: a hill, woods and a lakeside shore, as well as a cherry orchard and greenhouses. 

Working for a private client, the architects have designed two vacation escapes as a mixture of folly and dwelling. The first has now been completed and consists of a hexagonal pavilion with a domical roof that starts out with a gentle slant and continues at a steep angle. Not only in the cherry blossom season does the roof recall Far Eastern pagodas – and the tea pavilions they have inspired in the historical landscape gardens of Europe. Its covering in diamond-shaped metal shingles ends in a gutterless serrated edge. 

On the upper floor a large rooflight enables a clear sight of the night sky, while extensive glazing on three of the six facades provides views onto both the lake and the cherry trees. The three other sides of the house merely have a single large and centrally positioned punch window, and are clad in black-painted wooden planks and white battens in a vertical strip pattern. The outer planking conceals a timber-framed panel substructure incorporating sections of brick masonry to improve the indoor climate. 

In a second construction phase, a further new building – the "Tower" – is to be erected on a little rise in the ground not far from the pavilion. As the plans show, the cubic dwelling will be more closed in character, with the windows positioned in pyramid-shaped oriel structures and deep-set reveals. The facades are to be provided wood siding shingles, and the interior rooms organised as an arrangement of spaces involving various interwoven room heights in Loos's Raumplan approach.