Graber Pulver Architekten: Südhang residential complex in Herrenschwanden - best architects 24

Graber Pulver Architekten

Südhang residential complex in Herrenschwanden

best architects 24

multi-family homes

Place

Zurich, Switzerland

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.