The new residential neighbourhood “Kokoni One” is being built in the north of Berlin, in an existing residential area of Pankow with local amenities and good connections to the centre of Berlin. Here, residents are not dependent on a private car and hardly any new infrastructure needs to be created. “Kokoni One” consists of house variants for households of different sizes and family constellations. Residents can customise their building from a matrix of different floor plans. The interior walls are non-load-bearing and can be easily remodelled if needed. The urban planning concept is based on the grouping of eight to ten houses around communal courtyards. This creates small neighbourhoods within the quarter. The central orchard with a playground, a calisthenics facility and a community house, also serves as a meeting point for everyone.
The buildings are constructed using circular timber construction, which is visible to users both inside and out. The external timber panel construction walls are prefabricated in the factory and filled with wood fibre insulation. The façades are clad with untreated European larch wood. The storey ceilings are made of solid wood, which remains visible from below. The roofs are pitched and diffusion-open with natural insulation materials. The building shell is therefore completely recyclable.
The energy concept was designed as a neighbourhood solution: A central geothermal probe system supplies a low-temperature LowEx local heating network, which in turn supplies the floor heating. Ventilation systems were not required. Drinking water is heated using flow heaters. Like the central heat pump system and the wall boxes for electric cars, they are supplied with electricity from photovoltaic modules on the roofs.
More than half of the 84 houses have now been built and the first users have moved in.
Design of the workshop procedure: Kokoni One | Timber Construction Quarter at the Orchard | Competition
