Aita Flury / Silvia Kopp

Description

The underlying premise of the single family home is to establish an intimacy with the surrounding vernacular whilst simultaneously exploiting an idiom that expresses contemporary constructive relations. The structural openings on the frontal facades and the compositional positioning of the window apertures on the side facades articulate the interior spatial scheme and the emphasis of the hillside location, but above all are an attempt to find a fine balance between opening and closing the planes of the construction. The building shows a remarkable simultaneous demonstration of mannerist proportions and a particular trivial and peripheral character. The potential clash with the scale of the neighbourhood is averted by the materialisation and applications. Far from being anachronistic, the explicit use of wood shingle allows formal possibilities to be exceeded whilst celebrating work-intensive construction, craftsmanship and the radiance of the material. The interior spaces of the house are organised as a sequence of spacious chambers around a central staircase, each room being specifically determined and having an individual progression in height.