In Linescio, a village in the Rovana Valley, there is a 200-year-old stone building. The building consists of a basement base that protrudes far into the steep slope. Above it is a simple, unheated living room without a water connection and at the top a hay stage with arbour-like porches. The wooden structure at right angles to the building was built in a knitted construction and with a stone base. The building lay fallow for 50 years and is to be converted into a summer house.
The archaic character of the house is preserved. The decision for a summer house allows you to do without heating, windows and insulation and leave the façade in its condition. The interior will be completely new, but just as simple and raw: as an autonomous body made of concrete. The concrete for the interior construction is poured layer by layer from the covered roof. From the outside, the new building is only visible at the garden door made of steel-framed glass and the concrete fireplace. The annex will be reinforced with steel girders. It houses the kitchen and bathroom, which correspond to the overall concept in their sparseness.
Behind the doors and windows of the old building, vertical slits open up in the concrete building over the entire height of the two floors. The windows can be closed by internal oak shutters. When open, the view of the outdoors glides past the original interior façade and through the old window openings. The presence of the old natural stone walls in the modern interior allows old and new to interact. The interior offers space for the basics: living room, sleeping alcove and fireplace. When the fire is burning, the cubic chimney made of concrete becomes a heat reservoir for the sleeping platform above. Bathing takes place in a depression worked into the ground in timber construction.
Source: Buchner Bründler Architekten
Photos: Ruedi Walti, Buchner Bründler
