Description

Titus Bernhard’s spectacular design for a small house in a naturally evolved village structure is appealing for two principal reasons: firstly, this figure interprets the classical-archaic ‘house’ type that predominates in a village context as a block with a sloping roof in a very simple and thus impressive way. Bernhard chooses the ground-plan square as a highly abstract form (9×9 metres) in order to avoid random arbitrariness, the rule for anonymous-formless building. Choosing a sloping roof conforms with building regulations and pays tribute to the neighbouring buildings, but the architect resists the norm and also unduly rigorous geometry by means of a pyramid with cheekily asymmetrical slopes.

Secondly, monolithic mass is created as a homogeneous whole by using a highly unusual and innovative façade material: metal baskets are filled with loose stones and placed over the sealed mass of the building shell. Wall and roof become one, without overhangs, gutters, bays or joints. The result is a sculptural block with window frames flush with the outside and the creative charm of a rough, tactile surface contrasting with clearly-framed apertures punched out with razor sharp edges. The interior also follows the design of the powerfully implied exterior totality. The main entrance and the living, dining and cooking area on the ground floor are linked via air spaces to the upper bedroom area, rising to the roof; and an open reading gallery under the tip of the pyramid encourages meditation, for example about the sense and nonsense of local design requirements.

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Originally published in: Klaus-Peter Gast, Living Plans: New Concepts for Advanced Housing, Birkhäuser, 2005.