Porta Gallica

Porta Gallica

Porta Gallica, at the entrance to the French Quarter in Tübingen, features a powerful colour concept to bring a more relaxed feel to the urban area. In this process, the fresh colours form an exciting contrast to the strict lines of the façade.

Porta Gallica forms part of a block consisting of four buildings within a hybrid development built as a solid structure up to the second floor and as a timber structure from then on. Joint tenders for different services such as structural work or joinery work were put out together with the architects and planners of the other buildings in the project, to minimise costs.

As the urban development specifications in Tübingen’s new residential estates are fairly liberal, architects were able to integrate some very special design elements. More than in other projects, regular communication is paramount, to convince building associations of the value of some unconventional ideas, especially within the context of the property developer model. For instance, the wooden windows on the ground floor featured wooden box frames that protruded significantly from the façade. In addition to plans and drawings, large models at a scale of 1:10 were repeatedly used as communication aids.

Location Tübingen
Client building association
Completed in 2007
Residential space 610 m², commercial area 230 m², 4 residential units, 1 commercial unit
Design solid construction with wooden roof (Lignatur)
Technical equipment KfW 40 energy standard with heat recovery/solar system, pellet heating and controlled ventilation for residential units