Architecture & Urbanism
Architecture
House Wahl
001
Single family house in Ziefen, Switzerland, project and realisation 1998-1999
The house for an industrial textile entrepreneur family is located in a suburban area near Basel.
The parents of the family, mainly engaged in the family’s business, and their four nearly adult children are eventually living rather independently from each other under the same rooftop.
The organisational principal is precisely reacting on this programmatic requirement, taking into consideration that two parties could once inhabit the house in a long-term perspective. Therefore the house is organised on two floors whereas each floor contains of similar qualities, using the topographical condition for connections to various exterior spaces of different characteristics.
A courtyard, embraced by a concrete wall that is simultaneously stabilising the terrain, is connected via an external staircase with the terrace on the upper floor. The two separated levels are thus connected via the possibility of a loop-circulation that integrates and allows spatial experiences of both exterior and interior spaces.
The house is mainly built in concrete, while the parts embracing interior spaces – such as walls and ceilings – are isolated and covered with a dark scratch plaster, emphasising on the plasticity of the buildings presence. The large ‚fenètre en longeurs‘, excavating the whole width of the rooms, are held by tamarack wood frames.
Specific feature of the House that is giving it its strong idiosyncratic formal appearance is a double shed roof, making modest reference to the remarkable shed factory owned by the family and built in the late 50ies by the well known Basel architect Otto Senn.
The parents of the family, mainly engaged in the family’s business, and their four nearly adult children are eventually living rather independently from each other under the same rooftop.
The organisational principal is precisely reacting on this programmatic requirement, taking into consideration that two parties could once inhabit the house in a long-term perspective. Therefore the house is organised on two floors whereas each floor contains of similar qualities, using the topographical condition for connections to various exterior spaces of different characteristics.
A courtyard, embraced by a concrete wall that is simultaneously stabilising the terrain, is connected via an external staircase with the terrace on the upper floor. The two separated levels are thus connected via the possibility of a loop-circulation that integrates and allows spatial experiences of both exterior and interior spaces.
The house is mainly built in concrete, while the parts embracing interior spaces – such as walls and ceilings – are isolated and covered with a dark scratch plaster, emphasising on the plasticity of the buildings presence. The large ‚fenètre en longeurs‘, excavating the whole width of the rooms, are held by tamarack wood frames.
Specific feature of the House that is giving it its strong idiosyncratic formal appearance is a double shed roof, making modest reference to the remarkable shed factory owned by the family and built in the late 50ies by the well known Basel architect Otto Senn.
