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Architects: 2b architectes
- Year: 2011
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Photographs:Roger Frei
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Manufacturers: Cosmic, Fluora, Glas Trösch, Kvadrat, Wedi, Wesco
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Construction Management: Beric, Genève
Text description provided by the architects. The urban villa is situated at the top of the Campagne de Beaumont park, a country estate constructed in 1850. The compact building with its punctured window “holes” reinterprets characteristic qualities of the 19th century buildings. For example, the mineral washed concrete façade uses a colour that blends in with the surrounding vegetation. Since the concrete surfaces of each individual apartment are treated differently, the typologically interwoven character of the interior can also be perceived on the exterior.
The communally used covered interior atrium at the core of the solid construction guides daylight inside the building and acts as a point of reference for the floor plans of the four interlocking residential units. The apartments have the characteristic of detached single-family homes because of an innovative distribution of rooms, each with an individualised quality. For instance the living rooms are distributed throughout the entire height of the building, thereby benefiting from the different views and sun levels. Each apartment has an independent entrance from the courtyard, a direct connection to the garage and a private garden plot.
The principle of the floor plan concept combines the advantages of individual living with communal togetherness: an innovative and well-conceived answer to urban densification that revitalises the idea of “living together”.
