Ruinelli Associati Architetti: Single-family house in Val Monastero - best architects 18

Ruinelli Associati Architetti

Single-family house in Val Monastero

best architects 18

single family homes

Place

Lü / Switzerland

Photos

Ralph Feiner

Description

The house is built on a steep slope, a ridge on the border between the heart of the village and the area with newer buildings. The project contrasts these two realities, seeking a profound dialogue with the landscape. It is the landscape, in fact, that inspired the monolithic structure in concrete, which is embedded in the slope as if it were one of the erratic boulders strewn across the meadows. The appetite for »chance« is reflected in the irregular pentagonal ground plan and in the broken line of the coping in the upper part of the structure. The architectural approach to landscape finds expression in the desire to frame it. Consequently, the façades are determined by what you can see »from within, looking out«, and the windows are chosen on the basis of the best views rather than strictly formal solutions. The search for materials, too, investigates the relationship between the fabricated and the natural. The concrete façades, with the exception of the window frames, are pitted like the natural surface of rock – a quotation of the local landscape – and also evoke the old, yellowish, chalk-based plasters, obtained in this case by mixing aggregates of Lasa marble and Terra di Siena pigment. The interiors are characterised by the use of local materials: rough-cut silver quartzite and larch from the Monastero Valley, with inserts in pinewood.