dgj228 Sufficient Communal Living
On a leftover plot of just around 313 m2 on Friedberger Landstraße in Frankfurt’s Nordend district, a four-storey timber building has been built with nine flats, a shared kitchen and a guest room. The ground floor houses a midwifery practice serving the neighbourhood. At 27.8 m2 per person, private living space is well below the German average of 47.4 m2. Less private and more shared space does not mean doing without. It is an offer to a city where land is scarce and housing is in short supply.
Compact flats and shared spaces balance each other out. What each flat does not need to provide on its own, the residents share: the communal kitchen as a meeting place in the building, shared balconies on every floor and the guest room for visitors. This saves space, construction costs and resources and at the same time creates room for encounters. A car-sharing and e-mobility hub is also open to the neighbourhood. Today, around 15 adults and 10 children live in the building.
The project started as an initiative of the building group Gemeinsam Suffizient Leben. As early as 2018, the concept received the Hessian Award for Innovation and Community Spirit in Housing. During planning, the Wohnbaugenossenschaft in Frankfurt am Main eG, a housing cooperative, took over as client. The building group remained involved: future owners became tenants who could continue to shape their way of living.
The load-bearing structure is a prefabricated timber frame developed by DGJ Architektur without metal connectors. The timber-to-timber joints are largely reversible, the floor plans remain adaptable, and the curtain-wall glass façade can also be dismantled. This allows the building to respond to new requirements and to be taken apart and separated by material later on.
The building shows that even narrow leftover plots in densely built-up districts can offer room for communal living and that sustainable construction works.
Client
Wohnbaugenossenschaft in Frankfurt am Main eG
Partners
Building group Gemeinsam Suffizient Leben
Pirmin Jung Ingenieure
Procedure
Concept competition, 1st rank
Planning and completion
2016 – 2023
Gross floor area
1,080 m2
Photographer
Thilo Ross
Prizes and awards:
- Hessian Award for Innovation and Community Spirit in Housing 2018, 1st prize in the “Concepts” category.
- Shortlist DAM Prize 2025.
- Exemplary Buildings in Hesse 2026 – State Prize for Architecture and Urban Design, commendation in the “Architecture” category.
