Holzrausch Extends a Wilhelminian-Era Frankfurt Penthouse

Decoranytime

Few design conditions are as layered as the inhabited palimpsest – a historic building asked to absorb a contemporary life without surrendering what made it worth preserving in the first place. Penthouse Frankfurt, completed by Munich-based workshop and studio Holzrausch, navigates exactly this tension. The Wilhelminian era left behind a very particular architectural grammar – deep floor plates, generously proportioned rooms, and load-bearing masonry. Rather than smooth over these conditions or treat them as a neutral backdrop, Holzrausch worked the existing fabric into the logic of the intervention itself.

The two-story roof extension that crowns the building is the project’s boldest move, and its most structurally clarifying one. By constructing a new volume above the historic shell, the project distinguishes legibly between what was found and what was made. Inside, Kambala – an African hardwood with a warm amber grain that oxidizes gracefully – runs as full-height panelling across rooms, built-ins, and circulations alike, functioning as a continuous spatial membrane.

Warm-brushed stainless steel meets terrazzo and stained timber within the kitchen. Holzrausch, operating as a single-source supplier with designers, construction planners, and craftspeople in continuous dialogue, was particularly well positioned to resolve these junctions. The end result is coherent precisely because no single element was considered in isolation from the whole.

The client came with an art collection, of which required a space with walls that do not compete, and circulation that allowed for sustained attention. The calm sequencing of rooms was a direct response to this need, with the Kambala shell providing a visual ground warm enough to humanize the spaces without asserting itself against the works on display. It is a balance that gallery-adjacent residences frequently fail to strike, defaulting either to the clinical neutrality of a white cube or to an exuberant domesticity that overwhelms the collection.