Holzrausch is both an interior design firm and carpentry workshop, operating out of Bavaria and Munich, Germany. It was commissioned to renovate the footprint of a luxury apartment while still maintaining the panoramic views of the surrounding Munich cityscape and alps. Aptly titled Munich on Top, the project is home for a professional saxophone player who was looking for more space. Holzrausch combined two apartments into one 3,230-square-foot penthouse. Through rich materials and in-house execution, the home offers a quiet background for the surrounding commanding views.
“We wanted to preserve generous sightlines and the calm openness of the penthouse, while still enabling privacy and flexibility,” design lead and founder of Holzrausch, Sven Petzold, shared with AN Interior. “The solution was a central wooden core clad in oak veneer, paired with a circulation look that keeps the apartment continuous and bright, yet can be zoned into separate ‘units’ via sliding doors when needed.”
When walking through the penthouse, natural light meets warm materials of oak veneer, Matteo Brioni plaster walls, and smooth travertine floors. Quiet and comforting components also come through in the curved edges of many surfaces throughout the residence. Softened wall corners aid the flow from one space to another. The curviness continues in the stone sinks in the kitchen and bathroom, the coffee table in the living room, and the team’s favorite design element: the Wachenzeller Dolomit bar encased in a swirl-finished stainless steel.
“Munich on Top is a good example of Holzrausch’s hybrid DNA: we don’t separate design from making,” Petzold added, illustrating the firm’s ethos. The penthouse’s central wooden core with bespoke units was designed and crafted in Holzrausch’s workshop in Bavaria. In-house customization allows not only the highest quality design, but it is also part of the practice’s sustainable method. “Sustainability is first and foremost about longevity. We are using durable, natural materials and a level of craftsmanship that ensures the interiors age well and remain repairable,” said the founder. He continued, “This shortens supply chains, strengthens quality control, and preserves artisanal know-how.”
Munich on Top is a unique renovation project dramatic in its interventions, but delicate with the final result. When asked to describe the project in one word, Petzold shared, “Clarity. The entire renovation is about reducing noise, spatially and materially, while allowing the home to shift between openness and retreat. The core creates an intelligible structure, and the tonal palette lets the views, light, and the client’s art take center stage. In that clarity, light becomes almost a material of its own.”