Freudenstadt is a sought-after area – living where others spend their holidays is the simple and attractive formula for a dwelling in the heart of the Black Forest. This town, simultaneously a health resort, leisure area and transport hub, is located away from the cities of Stuttgart, Baden-Baden, Tübingen and Straßburg, all of which are around an hour away by car. For some time now, Freudenstadt has benefited from the overheated real estate market in the major cities – because recently, the surrounding area has also become the focus of the higher earners as an alternative residential area.

On behalf of Borgmann Bauträger GmbH, the internationally renowned architectural firm Schmelzle+Partner planned and executed an outstanding residential building in the truest sense of the word. Two timelessly modern dwelling, each with seven storeys, were erected on a plot covering 3,200 square meters directly below Freudenstadt's Kienberg district. The highlight: both buildings accommodate seven exclusively designed flats, as a “house-in-house" concept, with floor areas of between 150 and 200 m², which each stretch across the entire storey area. Compared with similarly sized single-family houses, "Parkside” thus offers plenty of living space with less use of floor area.

The architectural impression of the building complex is timeless and sophisticated – and at the same time the planners have implemented the requirements for sustainable buildings in many locations: in addition to the low-energy construction and the exploitation of solar power, natural biologically compatible and long-lasting construction materials were used throughout. The design of the facade for this building complex is also in line with this requirement: the highly insulated ETICS facade (StoTherm Mineral) was clad with Zeitlos 359 kohleglanz clinker brick slips from Ströher in NF format and combined with plaster surfaces for design reasons. 

“The south-west entrance to Freudenstadt is characterised by a quarry area and the former spa centre with a copper facade. In order for the colour of the facade design of Parkside to correspond with this entrance, the first consideration was to use a copper facade also“, explains Siegfried Schmelzle from Schmelzle+Partner Architekten BDA. For acoustic reasons, the architects responsible ultimately decided against using the copper solution, as Schmelzle goes on to explain: “Our ultimate choice were the Zeitlos 359 kohleglanz clinker brick slips from Ströher which, in addition to numerous benefits such as better acoustics and trailblazing sustainability, also radiate a similar play of colours. In order to reduce the height of the building optically, while at the same time emphasising it, white plaster frames in a horizontal format were also chosen in addition to the surfaces clad in clinker brick slips”.

The Ströher Group is a German ceramics company that operates worldwide and specialises at its Dillenburg site in the production and sale of signature ceramics and clinker brick slips, i.e. ceramic tiles and clinker brick slips with a distinctive character. The parent company Ströher has been one of Germany's leading manufacturers of extruded clinker brick slips for facades and frost-resistant outdoor ceramics for terraces and balconies since 1884. The subsidiaries Gepadi and Ströher Living market stoneware lifestyle tiles for floors and walls in the residential ceramics business segment.