Graber Pulver Architekten
Südhang residential complex in Herrenschwanden
best architects 24
multi-family homes
Place
Zurich, Switzerland
Studio
Photos
Peter Tillessen
Description
Where once two parties lived, the Südhang project has
created nine single-family homes with individual typologies in four houses:
dense living with a collective infrastructure. There are four cross-interlocked
units with a four-sided orientation on four floors as well as two cross-interlocked
units with efficiently cut, one-and-a-half-storey living and dining areas. In
the fourth house, there are two flats with loft-like dimensions over a compact
floor plan and a smaller single-occupancy flat. In addition to the private
outdoor spaces – on the valley side the flats have a pergola, on the mountain
side a terrace under a generous canopy – there are two well-dimensioned
communal outdoor spaces. The carport is also a covered space, with a fountain
and access to the flats. In the specific slope, concrete is the natural
building material for stabilising the building ground and for forming a kind of
solid inner spine (parking facility below ground level). The project’s façade
displays both smoothly formed and bush-hammered surfaces. Together with the
vertical pillars of the valley façade and the horizontal bands and canopies,
these enhance the distinctive character and structure of the building. The
architectural value of a carefully designed monolithic appearance that is
extremely durable is another reason why we are interested in concrete as a
material.