Architect's and artist's house at the foot of the Üetliberg in Zurich. The apartment building aims to create affordable housing with a high residential value for four parties of different sizes. Each party should benefit as equally as possible on the one hand from the 3000 m2 south-facing turnaround and on the other hand from the north-facing view over the city. This generated an unconventional, complex internal organization of the building. All 4 apartments are accessed from a two-storey entrance room, each of which has its own internal staircase over one or two floors. Basically, two duplex apartments and two attic apartments are nested inside each other in such a way that the quality of the building, which is oriented on four sides, could be fully exploited. The materials chosen are common, unrefined building materials such as concrete, wood and galvanized steel, which are excitingly related to each other. The precise installation of the coloured kitchens with reflective glass covers and the large-scale colourful glass panelling of the walls in the wet rooms contrast with the coarse concrete and the organic wood patterns. The basement, the vertical stair towers and the partition walls between the residential units are made of in-situ concrete (formwork type 1). This fulfils fire safety and acoustic requirements generated by the timber element construction, of which the majority of the remaining room structure is composed. The concrete core forms the 'skeleton' of the actual wooden house, which exaggerates the raw of the concrete with its organic softness. Ceilings and walls are made of prefabricated, insulated wooden elements made of spruce. The interior surfaces are made of box plywood on the walls and three-layer panels on the ceilings. The individual components and the work processes can be read. The slightly polygonal geometry gives the timber construction the character of a piece of furniture made by a carpenter. The most striking feature of the façade, which consists of galvanised sheet metal, is the differentiated design of the window openings on the north and south sides.
Source: Andreas Fuhrimann Gabrielle Hächler Architekten
Photos: Valentin Jeck
