Lina House

Lina is the daughter of Ulrich Aspetsberger, one of the partners in Caramel, a Viennese architectural practice. From Monday to Friday, she lives in Linz, almost 200 kilometres away, where her mother works as curator at the Lentos Art Museum. As her father had grown up in Linz, he was able to set up a pied-à-terre, right next to the grandparent's house. With its own bathroom and kitchen, it is independent enough so that the generations can, but do not have to be, close together. The structure was not designed for eternity, either, and once the family moves back together again, the house can easily be dismantled. Slim steel poles set into three strip foundations are all that anchor it to the ground. 'Floating' on top of them is a spiral wrapped in yellow-beige lorry tarpaulin, with a fully glazed long elevation where the property slopes down to the Danube. The skin is made of the same recycled material as Freitag bags, those Swiss-made 'must have' accessories for young urbanites.