House SW Brings Calm Order to a 1975 Home Reborn for Family Living
House SW reimagines a 1975 house in Vienna, Austria with a calm, legible plan. Illichmann Architecture leads the renovation, addressing a once-dark entry, awkward circulation, and a poor link to the garden with a nimble reorganization. The project replaces a peripheral stair with a split run and brightens the core while preserving the building’s footprint.
Light falls through a tall entry and lands on the floor. The approach no longer ends in a low, dim foyer but opens into a two-story volume that invites movement deeper into the house.
This is a house renovation in Vienna by Illichmann Architecture, designed in 2024 with a clear aim: fix circulation and restore a fluid relationship to daily life. The plan shifts the stair from the edge to the center and splits it into two non-overlapping runs, untangling rooms and giving each level a simple, intuitive sequence.
Reposition the Heart
The new stair becomes the heart, set within the bright entrance and scaled to anchor movement without swallowing area. One run rises to a central living room, the other continues discreetly toward private rooms above. That split resolves the former tangle of doors and corridors, trading dead ends for short, direct connections.
Link Rooms and Garden
On the main level, the living room meets a large living kitchen, and both open with broad window doors to the terrace and garden. Everyday routes shorten: cooking to dining, dining to outdoors, and back again without detour. Air and light pass easily across the plan, and the garden reads as part of the daily circuit rather than a destination.
Separate Public and Private
The upper run climbs between two wall sections, a planned pause that quietly separates social rooms from bedrooms. Two bedrooms face the garden with French windows, oriented away from street noise for calmer mornings. A larger master bedroom sits to the east with its own terrace, giving that room an early light and a direct outdoor extension.
Build Within Limits
The renovation keeps the original footprint and works largely within existing dimensions, an economical constraint that sharpens the plan moves. Only above does the structure shift: the roof on the upper floor is raised and rebuilt, with the master area recast as a set-back wooden volume in place of the former low roof zone. That precise adjustment clears head height and improves proportion without unnecessary expansion.
Tighten Performance
A thermal insulation facade wraps the solid construction, cutting losses while the plan does the daily work of clarity. Heating comes from an air heat pump and underfloor loops, supporting comfort as circulation and daylight do the rest (quietly).
By evening, the stair reads as a calm landmark back to the entry. Light thins across the terrace, and rooms settle into a clear order. The house feels easy to navigate—measured routes, direct links, and a garden that’s finally part of the walk.
Photography courtesy of Illichmann Architecture
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