The house is not designed as a body with a surrounding shell, but as a performative assembly of different objects that stand in direct relation to their external surroundings. The attitude to the site determines a palette of simple building materials and creates criteria for radically direct constructions. The building components detach themselves from clear identities and become strong, ambiguous and autonomous elements. For example, the house with its sweeping, gestural canopy and expressive, outward-opening ventilation windows faces the forest. The 13-metre-long aluminum window strip with attached textile awnings and a smaller canopy are the main features on the view side. The largely closed side façades achieve a high, shield-like presence through their shape and the precise formulation of the butterfly roof. The protective fiber cement roof rises a few centimeters above the open gutters, contrasting the compactness of the volume with a deliberately fragile design. The elementization of the timber roof, which is necessary for transport, allows for the large, structural skylight opening with a view of the overhanging black pine.
The slightly asymmetrical longitudinal division of the foundation walls of the existing building is adopted and developed into the spatial theme of the floor plan. All the service rooms are arranged on the forest side, contrasted by the extra-long living room with a lateral view of the garden. To lend tension to this clear spatial situation, the functional elements seek contradiction: the kitchen stands transversely in the room layers and negates the clear division. The fireplace and parquet flooring turn against the spatial sequence towards the kitchen and subtly divide the newly created spaciousness of the living hall into well-proportioned room areas. On the upper floor, the soffit of the structural elements to the finished ceiling and the directness of the performative assembly can be experienced in the interior. The number of all layers and elements is reduced to a minimum, while the design conciseness of the necessary parts is exaggerated.
Direct commission
Building of the week - Swiss Architects, Finalist award "Bester Umbau 2021"
Published among others in Hochparterre "2020-09", ARC Magazin "2021-04"
Architecture: Stefan Wülser
Civil engineer: Schnetzer Puskas
Building physics: Raumanzug
