To design part of a city is tightly related to the capture of its traditions, values and history of the place. To translate them in a contemporary form, into an innovative and contextual architecture.

Different urban fabrics surround the site of this project: the historic town with narrow-lined houses and narrow streets, the 19th-century residential town with terraced houses around private gardens, and the modern city where constellations of barge buildings alternate with green areas.

Starting from the residential patterns constituting Nuremberg's context, we have defined a new urban typology that through optimizing the relationship between outer envelope and internal plan, becomes the synthesis between a building with an isolated court typology and the medieval urban density.

In the centre, along Pillerreuther Strasse, a sloping road

reduces the scale of intervention and divides the area into two block- courts. Along their perimeter, the proposed buildings reflect the heights of the context, while eight shared terraces sculpt the volumes over a commercial ground floor, increasing the visual permeability between interior and exterior of the plot.

The precise study of the size of each of the 13 buildings and the interior organization of plans allow for each apartment to take advantage of a double or triple exposure.

The contemporary materials retrieve the traditional medieval facades while increasing the energy performance of buildings. On the street side, a double skin facade made of perforated aluminium resembles the rhythm of the half-timbered houses. Large terraces give the inner facades a uniform appearance, while larch axles cover the facades on the two courts, giving a cosy atmosphere.