Baumberger & Stegmeier Architekten

Description

The new building on the Bergstrasse in the municipality of Oetwil am See is the starting point to a future housing development on the current farming land of the Schlösslihof. The building replaces an impressive barn and gives the entire plot a new identity as a house with porticoes, whose typology takes its inspiration from rustic role models but finds its own independent expression. The floor plan is based on the desire of the client initially to use the house as a temporary location for two psychiatric wards. For this reason, a neutral room arrangement was selected that is ideal for the wards and which can, subsequently, be transformed into apartments with limited intervention. The style of accommodation was inspired by rural dwellings. From the portico one immediately enters into a large kitchen-cum-living room from which all other rooms are accessed. The appearance of the house is defined by its external load-bearing structure made of green coated concrete columns and an envelope of aubergine-coloured, rough sawn boards. Together with the metal clad wooden windows, which are dark on the outside and accentuate the spatial depth of the arcades, a homogenisation of materials is achieved that radiates serene elegance. The matte red of the timber cladding recalls the colour of the former barn. With its green accents the house blends in with the adjacent orchards.