Villa Renovation in the Rhein-Main Region
The villa is a particular building type in Germany. Most of the addresses we work on — Nerotal and Sonnenberg in Wiesbaden, the Westend in Frankfurt, the older quarters of Mainz — were laid out between 1870 and 1914, in the Gründerzeit and Wilhelminisch periods. Generous ceilings, stucco, parquet on solid joists, sometimes a Jugendstil staircase, often a coach house in the garden. The substance is real; the building services are usually not. Single-pane glazing, post-war wiring, heating systems from three different decades.
A villa renovation in this context is rarely a cosmetic task. It is a multi-year, multi-trade undertaking that begins with structural assessment and ends with a thermostat that responds to a phone. In between sits the work that defines the discipline: how to introduce underfloor heating without losing the original parquet, how to bring fibre optics through walls that are listed, how to negotiate with the Denkmalbehörde when a kitchen needs a window where there has never been one. Most of our villa projects are denkmalgeschützt — protected as individual cultural monuments or as part of a Denkmalensemble. The same pre-war substance, at apartment scale, is the subject of our Altbau renovation work. That changes everything about the process. Permits take time. Materials are specified, not chosen freely. Documentation matters as much as execution.
Our approach: dialogue with the bestand
We do not begin with a mood board. We begin with the building. What is original, what was added in 1962, what is structurally load-bearing, what is decorative. A villa has its own narrative — and the renovation either continues that narrative or interrupts it. We continue it, when the substance deserves continuation. We edit it, when later additions diminish the whole. We rarely overwrite it entirely. The goal is not to make a historic villa look new. The goal is to give it another century of useful life, with the technical performance of a contemporary house and the dignity of the original.
This translates into a specific way of working. Material substance over surface effect. Solid oak, blackened steel, hand-glazed brick, mouth-blown glass, brass that will patina. Custom-made joinery over branded furniture. Where a client wants this direction fixed before the build, we develop it as a documented Mood & Material Concept. Quiet detailing — a doorway that closes properly, a window reveal that catches the morning light, a stair handrail that fits the hand.
Reference projects
A selection: VILLA A4 — a denkmalgeschütztes Einzelkulturdenkmal in Wiesbaden, fully renovated, four residential units, the largest at 320 m². VILLA L14 — 530 m² of residential floor area, ground-up interior. HAUS D7 — two Altbauten near Mainz joined into a single 170 m² Split-Level home, Best of Interior. Earlier work includes THE COLLECTORS APARTMENT, a 130 m² Altbau apartment in Wiesbaden.
HOAI phases and pricing
We work along the HOAI framework — phases 1 (Grundlagenermittlung) through 9 (Dokumentation). For villa projects we typically cover phases 1–8, which includes site supervision (Bauleitung). For early concept and feasibility work we bill on a day-rate basis; for defined scopes we work per-phase as a fixed fee. The HOAI is our reference, not a ceiling — what determines the fee is the depth of intervention, the heritage situation, and the number of trades on site. Pricing is discussed in plain terms after the first site visit.
For broader context on our private residential work see Residential — Privates Wohnen. For smaller residential projects in apartments rather than houses, see our apartment design page. For projects where the emphasis is on material substance and custom-made pieces rather than structural renovation, see Luxury Living.
