Description
The architects’ home is a courageous, self-confident newcomer in a small, very traditional collection of houses. This is signalled from a distance by the use of exposed concrete for the main structure and the façade, which is not usual in this location. The site slopes quite steeply, typically for Switzerland, and the house exploits the topography to create a view of a spectacular Alpine panorama. This position on a slope is to be experienced inside the house through a differentiated interplay of levels and the steps that this necessitates. But the cubic body does not simply thrust itself into the slope, which would have needed considerable excavation, but is staggered–following the slope–without abandoning the essentially closed overall outline. Access is from two sides and on two levels; approach by car is to the lower storey. From there, the slightly lower bedroom area, which also opens generously on to the view, is reached via a downward shift of level. Above is an intermediate level with stairs on both sides, one flight leading to the kitchen and dining area and the other to the separate living area on a kind of platform, the upper floor level. Rather like a plateau accessed from a higher road, this room presents itself as an almost independent unit combined with the terrace for the view.
The façades of the dining and living areas are dissolved entirely into glass and placed diagonally, so that the terrace platform becomes an integral part of these areas. Indoors and outdoors are woven together very tightly in spatial terms, although clear outlines are provided by the glass, the door contours and a framing roof edge. This produces a double impression like a puzzle picture: on the one hand there is a clearly intelligible limitation of space, on the other hand, fusion with the exterior, both close by and in the distance. This effect is also called forth by the fashion in which the volume develops: the independent bodies for cooking/dining and living, which look as though they have been added on top, become one again with the outside wall and are subsumed within the whole.
Drawings
Site plan
Axonometric diagram of the volume and living area
Lower level with entrance and bedroom area
Intermediate level for access to the upper levels
Upper level with access, separate cooking/dining area and terrace
Cross section through the approach and entrance area with cooking and living areas above
Photos
Exterior view from the approach side
Interior view of the living area with view to cooking/dining area
Originally published in: Klaus-Peter Gast, Living Plans: New Concepts for Advanced Housing, Birkhäuser, 2005.