Berlin roof
The Berlin roof is an asymmetrical roof shape . In principle, it is a monopitch roof , slightly inclined towards the courtyard side, covered with wood cement or roofing felt on wooden battens , which, however, simulates a gable roof shape to the viewer from the street due to a steep slope (usually 60 degrees, sometimes interspersed with decorative gables) . There are also often the variants with a second steep bevel (usually 45 degrees) to the courtyard side and / or an additional simulated saddle roof ridge (see example on the left). The steep slopes are mostly covered with bricks. The flat part of the Berlin roof was usually designed as a wood-cement roof and was often overgrown.
The purpose of this roof shape was the favorable design compared to the optical effect. A fully covered pointed roof would have been significantly higher and would have required a more complex substructure. The Berlin roof is therefore a common type of roof of old Berlin apartment buildings from the Wilhelminian era , but which is also found in other German cities, e.g. B. in Hamburg and Schwerin, but also in Munich. In terms of construction, it can be seen as a simplification of the mansard roof , especially since there are flowing transitions between the two forms.
There are also versions of this roof shape in which the steep slope extends over two floors. In the case of a maisonette , this underlines the structural cohesion of its floors and emphasizes their separation from the rest of the building.
In the building construction manual it says on the subject of asymmetrical roofs :
“Asymmetrical roof shapes should only be used in exceptional cases and only in built-in houses. They are the result of an effort to set up a complete apartment in the attic while circumventing the building regulations on limiting the height of the building and to make the courtyard side a whole floor higher. "
Even if the term Berlin roof is not mentioned as such, it is undoubtedly about this roof shape.
In contrast to the Berlin roof, the platform roof is slightly inclined or even flat.
See also
literature
- Kersten Krüger , Stefan Kroll : City system and urbanization in the Baltic Sea region in the early modern period . LIT, Berlin / Hamburg / Münster 2006, ISBN 3-8258-8778-2 .
- Prof. Paul Schmidt, Dr. Ing. Hugo Ebinghaus (revision): Handbook of building construction . Heinrich-Killinger-Verlag Nordhausen, 1926.
Web links
- Building structure old town Wismar 2002 Page 2 (PDF file; 56 kB)