ToB.Studio

Description

Not the pursuit of more space but the dream of exceptional living drew the Schneider family to this hillside. Just steps from the grandparents’ house – and yet another world: steep, dotted with fruit trees, threaded with paths and terraces sheep have traced into the slope over decades. These lines became the inspiration – a living pattern for how routes and levels settle into an incline. Long deemed «unbuildable», the site changed when the village boundary was redrawn: a narrow corridor appeared, and the idea became possible. The house tucks into the hill – below a fair-faced concrete plinth on red sandstone, above a timber structure from the family’s own forest: vertically clad, showing a reserved face to the street, wide open to the valley. From the outset: compact, sustainable, resource-aware. Less floor area, more attitude. The plan is radically open: only the necessary walls, few doors, long sight lines. It worked because client and architect developed everything together, from first sketch to final choice of materials. During construction, one detail took centre stage – the stair. Once in place, it became a spot for talks, pauses and quiet watching. Walking down, you look through the «church window» to the stream 15 metres below, the Spessart forest and the sky. In the village they murmured: «Is this going to be a church?»