Counterpoint House by Ippolito Fleitz Group – Identity Architects
Counterpoint House places a retired entrepreneur’s new chapter in a contemporary house in Germany, where Ippolito Fleitz Group – Identity Architects choreographs the interiors. Working within Thomas Fabrinsky Architekten’s low-slung bungalow, the studio leans into bold colour, precise material combinations and crafted detailing to support daily rituals and long views. The result is a residence tuned to both introspection and sociable gatherings, with landscape, pool and interior volumes held in deliberate tension.
Glazing catches the trees of the Black Forest, pulling green reflections deep into the living areas as the black ceiling slips overhead like a continuous canopy. Underneath, colour-saturated volumes, sculptural objects and soft textures line up against the strict geometry of the architecture, so circulation moves through changing pockets of light and shade.
This house is a contemporary bungalow in Germany with carport, four garages, lap pool and barrier-free access, conceived by Thomas Fabrinsky Architekten for an entrepreneur returning to his hometown. Ippolito Fleitz Group – Identity Architects takes on the interiors, concentrating on an open-plan layout, bold colour and material contrasts that connect daily life with the surrounding landscape. Across the rooms, a single black ceiling, graphic linework and a carefully tuned material range anchor the composition and guide how the owner lives with his collections.
Colour As Counterpoint
The client arrives at a late-life love of colour, discovered in the Material Lab where samples of glossy, matte and absorbent finishes sit side by side. Those choices now punctuate the interior, so intense tones mark key objects and zones against a quieter architectural shell and the dark ceiling above. Sculptural pieces read as distinct characters, yet each one stays in dialogue with its neighbours through echoes of hue, texture or sheen. Daylight drifts across these surfaces during the day and the character of each room shifts with it.
Black Ceiling, Unified Rooms
A continuous black ceiling runs across the open-plan core, binding living, lounge and routes toward the pool into one legible field. This overhead plane carries a network of fine graphic lines that sketch movement and energy, softening the strict order of glazing and pool geometry below. The ceiling compresses certain areas and releases others, changing how each volume feels without adding partitions or doors. Under this dark lid, furnishings, art and everyday objects gain a clear stage, lit carefully against the depth above.
Indoors Extending Into Landscape
In the projecting lounge, interior finishes push outward toward the covered pool and the outdoor fire pit, so the floor plan reads as one extended living ground. The lounge volume reaches into the garden, with large surfaces of glass framing greenery and reflecting water, pulling the exterior into daily routines. A shared graphic motif runs from inside to the pool terrace, threading ceiling and soffit surfaces together and making the transition feel continuous rather than abrupt. Set a little apart, the fire pit zone becomes a destination along this line, still tied back to the main volume by material and drawing.
Material Gradients And Light
Within the open plan, materials are tuned less by hierarchy and more by their relationship to light, reflection and touch. Glossy planes catch sun and pool shimmer, while matte and softly absorbent textures quiet the acoustics and steady the eye in areas meant for rest or reading. The contrast between these surfaces gently shifts the sense of volume, enlarging certain corners and drawing the gaze along preferred routes toward views or artworks. Artificial lighting picks up this strategy at night, grazing across textured walls and objects so the house feels composed yet always in motion.
By drawing the interior deep into the garden and echoing the pool’s geometry overhead, Counterpoint House keeps the owner closely aligned with changing light and weather. Colour, graphic ceilings and crafted materials work together as daily companions rather than distant gestures. The result is a home that frames a new phase of life with clarity, comfort and a quietly theatrical sense of everyday rhythm.
Photography by Philip Kottlorz
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