This easy-to-understand summary is suited for students and language learners. The content has been condensed and scientific references have been omitted. The full context can be found in the complete version in standard language →
Some buildings don’t try to impress anyone. They don’t show up in design magazines or win awards. They just exist, being built slowly and carefully, one step at a time. The house at Ernestinian Street 34 in Meiningen, Thuringia, is that kind of building.
One person is building it. Not managing it from an office—actually building it, with his own hands. His name is Ansgar Halbfas, and he has a degree in construction engineering. This is not just a hobby. It is a belief: that someone who designs a building should understand it well enough to build it, and someone who builds it should understand it well enough to have designed it. In a country where building rules go back many decades, this hands-on approach is unusual—and deliberate.
The plan is to turn the building into a place where students and expatriates from around the world can live and work together. Not a regular dormitory, but a space made for research, conversation, and the kind of slow thinking that leads to new ideas. Parts of the building are also used to test new materials in real conditions. The project pushes against some regulations—not because safety doesn’t matter, but because the builder believes safety and new ideas can go together. The rules just don’t always make that easy.
So what does this have to do with you?
Maybe nothing. Or maybe you have a construction question that doesn’t fit the usual boxes. Maybe you are renovating something and need more than a standard answer. Maybe you have an idea you can’t quite put into words, or one you can explain perfectly but no one takes seriously. Maybe you are just starting something hard and want to talk to someone who has done the same.
Ansgar Halbfas is not a consultant. He is building a house. But he has worked in different countries, thought deeply about how technical knowledge and creative freedom fit together, and learned things that only come from doing difficult work yourself. If you have a real architectural question—one you care about and have already thought about—it is worth asking him.
Architect Sophie Frank is available for expert opinions and consultations ↗︎
Dr. Martin Kobler and their engineers provide technical consulting ↗︎
The imprint is below. The phone is answered at any hour.
The website’s hosting service saves basic technical data to keep the site running. This data is deleted automatically. You have the right to see, correct, or delete this data, and to object to its use. We support your Do Not Track preferences.
χARC · Ernestinian St 34 · Meiningen, Thuringia, 98617 · Federal Republic of Germany · Site engineer Dipl.-Ing. (MSc) Ansgar Halbfas · Phone 14152300006 · ansgar.halbfas at chiarc.com · Land register: 206‑3 · Internal Revenue Service ID: 171S3200750340008.
