Daluz Gonzalez Architekten

Description

Close to Basel, in a neighbourhood of detached family houses, we planned a 6.5-room house on a tight schedule and with a restricted budget. The house was to be built on a plot already occupied by the client’s parents. The limited dimensions of the site, with a north-south orientation on the long side, and the desire to share part of the garden, made it necessary to understand how the main house was being used. This large semi-circular home was built in the 1980s by the architect Max Schnetz. Its spatial rotundity in close proximity to the future building established the formal language for the new object. In searching for a curved form within the most common economic variables, which by definition led us to the «Swiss box», we came up with a symbiosis of two ideas: the curve and the «Swiss box». Minimal deformations of the outside walls accentuate the corners, giving the house an unexpected expressiveness and distinct identity. Built in timber on a concrete base, the house forms a link with traditional Swiss construction, emphasizing the duality between formal modernity and constructive tradition.