Rethinking Rural Living – Waxenberg Terraced Housing Rural communities face dual pressures; population decline, as residents seek urban opportunities, while remaining inhabitants favor sprawling single-family homes. This fragmentation strains infrastructure, burdens municipal budgets, and erodes village social fabric.
A local architect, acting as both designer and developer, proposed an alternative on a steep Waxenberg slope overlooking Castle Waxenberg’s ruins and the distant Danube Valley. This terraced building embeds garages, circulation, and services below grade, while cascading living spaces upward to capture panoramic views. Each apartment opens to generous private terraces, separated by storage niches and planted balustrades that block sightlines and sound between neighbors. From the access road, only two stories appear, respecting the region’s low vernacular. Residents enter mid-level and descend with the natural slope. Varied apartment sizes accommodate families, couples, and elderly residents with accessibility features, reconstructing the generational mix vital to rural communities. Natural color tones echo the surroundings.
This project interrogates a fundamental question: What does 21st century rural living demand? Not isolation, but community. Not sprawl, but landscape integration. Not compromise, but thoughtful density, preserving what draws people here: connection to place, each other, and enduring views.
