Marte.Marte Architekten: House of Chambers - best architects 23

Marte.Marte Architekten

House of Chambers

best architects 23

single family homes

Place

Feldkirch, Austria

Photos

Paul Ott

Description

Developed from a square floor plan that is itself divided into four segments of equal size, the building presents itself as an ingenious precision design in both the vertical and horizontal directions on several levels. In front is a small courtyard through which the house is accessed. The entrance to the underground car park and to various side rooms as well as the sauna and wellness area are completely dug into the slope. Steep staircases at right angles flank the northern and eastern façades, starting from the spiral staircase coming from below, and open up onto the top floor, which is designed as a private retreat. Built entirely of exposed concrete, the house is clad with solid oak on the inside, except for the ceilings. As closed-off as it appears from the outside, the house feels open inside, as a quarter of the square floor plan on each of the two above-ground floors has been transformed into a terrace. The negative volumes that form these two terraces virtually touch at the centre of this house, which is logically conceived yet perfused with an archaic sculptural monumentality. Inside and out, each side is completely different, giving the house the look of a bunker, then again a grandstand or a comfortably lined wooden box. What appears to be a monumental solitary structure then takes on a minimal air from a different perspective.