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Architects: Baumschlager Eberle Architekten
- Area: 479 m²
- Year: 2011
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Photographs:Roland Halbe
Text description provided by the architects. The point of departure was the rectangular volume, from whichemerged a configuration of apposite urban proportions. The defining features of the external envelope, which exploit the specificitiesof the location, are recesses, projections and indentations whichhave been deliberately arranged to fashion a meandering figurethat injects an element of dynamism into the immobile structure.Upon entering, the occupants and users decide whether they wishto remain on the ground floor or make their way to the lower level.On both floors the planning has proceeded ‘from the outside in’,thus producing a sequence of interlinked rooms.
The hillside location of the property means that the quality of theinterventions also enhances the topography. A common atrium connects the two floors that occupy the terrain. This space has beencleverly enclosed by a u-shaped structure. Thanks to a bridge on theentrance level the atrium affords a view from the forecourt – showingthe house in cross-section, as it were – down to the lower-lyingareas. An additional enclosed atrium emphasises the projectingnorth-western corner where the living room is situated.On the north side the architectural interplay between the open andclosed sections of the external envelope becomes readily comprehensibleas an integral element of the building process but withoutdeveloping into an end in itself.
This part of the house is designedprimarily to provide an array of different views of the nearby lake,although the varying public dimension of the individual spaces –from the living room to the bedroom – is clearly discernible. Theareas for private use are situated on the southern entrance side.The transition between the traffic-calmed access road and the siteis particularly fascinating. Two sections of wall, one of which servesto enclose the property and the other to secure privacy for the poolbehind, underline the difference in approach to the building assuch. This “looks out” in part above the layers, thus ensuring a certaindegree of integration into its immediate surroundings.
