pool Architekten
House Mühlerain
best architects 21
multi-family homes
Place
Meilen, Switzerland
Studio
Photos
Ralph Feiner
Description
The two-storey residential building with five rental
units and two studio spaces is located on a small knoll on the southern slope
of Lake Zurich on a terrain of Nagelfluh conglomerate and sandstone that gently
rises away from the hillside. The terrain, rock and tall Scotch pines are at the
origin of the design for the elongated building with its stepped height and its
oblique position to the hillside. Solid brick walls and ribbed concrete and
wooden slab together form the load-bearing framework. The access route is embedded into the terrain on the
western side of the building. The living areas are reached via generous
verandas on the ground floor. On the front, open staircases, inserted into the
structure, which are protected from the elements, lead to the upper floor. The
apartments are conceived as sequences of rooms with different heights. The
kitchen forms the centrepiece. Each apartment has a wide, projecting veranda.
Due to the many different sightlines, the situation and character of the
location that is so defined by Nature can be experienced everywhere. Living
spaces along the terrain on the ground floor are offset from one another at
different levels. Great attention was paid to the choice of materials.
The façades on the
garden side are clad with spruce boards and painted with a reddish oil-based
paint. The brick walls on the front are rendered with a lime mortar reminiscent
of tree bark. The entire building almost exclusively uses natural and
environmentally sustainable materials – some elements
are even made of wood from local trees.