Carole Iselin Architektur

Description

The building perches on the sun terrace of the mountain village of Lü in Val Müstair, 1,920 metres above sea level. With its sloped roof and polygonal floor plan, the house looks like a rock crystal jutting up from the landscape. Its generous volume is meant to pay homage to the traditional medieval residential towers in the canton of Grisons. Inside, a sculptural cascade stairway connects the three floors. It ends in an open-plan living room with a fireplace at its centre. The tent-shaped roof and pentagonal layout create rooms of varying heights. A large corner window affords a view over the countryside and the mountains. The reduction of the materials to fair-faced concrete and Swiss pine evokes an impression of barren simplicity: concrete in response to the traditional stone buildings of the region and as protection from the steep slope; solid, fragrant pine wood for the living room ceiling and floor-to-ceiling cupboard units that surround the bedrooms.