size of the grassy plot around it. ‘A courtyard house
allows you to communicate around that courtyard
and give you privacy as well,’ says Nina. The courtyard
is open at the back, facing towards the lake and
framing the view. The house also has an undulating
roof, which relects the surrounding landscape and
‘brings a more exciting shape into the interior’.
The house spans 350 sq m and contains three
bedrooms with an additional one-bedroom guest
apartment. There is no air-conditioning; passive
shading, good insulation and natural ventilation keep
the house cool in hot weather. There’s also a spiral
staircase, almost baroque in its grandeur, and a double-
height living space with a picture window. On the
top loor, a large transparent net plays the role of
a traditional balustrade, helping to maintain visualand spatial connections. A more secluded master
bedroom looks across the lake to the mountains.
The main timber structure was prefabricated of-site
and took about three weeks to erect. ‘The geometry
is quite complicated,’ says Florian. ‘The carpenter used
CNC milling machines to prepare everything, and an
on-site 3D model was used to help assemble the pieces.’
The zigzag forms of the exposed laminated ash beams
in the ceiling are a strong feature throughout. Their
shape responds to the house’s complex geometry and
allowed for triangulation of the roof structure so the
architects could always work with lat planes.
The pattern of the spruce façade, treated to give the
weathered silver sheen of older wood, is reminiscent of
traditional barn cladding. Up close, the detailing is far
from rustic – it’s immaculate Swiss precision, like the
pockets on a perfectly tailored pinstriped suit. ‘It’s quite
subtle and you don’t consciously notice it, but every
angle is diferent, which means that, despite the fact
the roof is undulating up and down, the cladding
always meets at the roof line,’ says Florian. ‘It’s not just
stuck on; it really reacts to the shape of the building.’
Another nod to the complex geometry of the
house is the tessellated hexagonal European oak
parquet looring on the top level. ‘We saw this pattern
in the shoe department of Selfridges in London years
ago and loved it,’ says Nina. ‘And because this house
is full of constantly changing angles, this is the perfect
shape to accommodate that.’ Nina also came up with
an interior palette of blue, green, aubergine, yellow
and warm grey, and she chose many of the fabrics and
furnishings. ‘It was important that these colours
and shapes all itted together because of the visual
interconnectedness of the interior,’ she says.
The house is far more complex and high-tech than
it looks. It also has a rich mix of materials, colours
and textures lowing through its curvy spaces, but both
aspects are executed in such a subtle way as to never
feel overbearing. It is a ine example of parametrics
being put to the service of the user, rather than just
being there for visual efect. ‘People who have visited
tell us that, although it is a big house, you never feel
lost in it, which means we have achieved a good balance
between intimacy and generosity of space,’ says Florian.
‘I think that’s quite a nice compliment.’ ∂
baierbischoberger.chABOVE LEFT, THE KITCHEN
FEATURES GLASS BALL
LIGHTING BY ARTEMIDE AND
A COUNTER MADE OF
BRAZILIAN BAMBOO MARRON
VC GRANITE, THE ONLY
NON-REGIONAL ELEMENT
IN THE WHOLE BUILDING
ABOVE RIGHT, THE CEMENT
TILES IN THE BATHROOM ARE
THE SAME SHAPE AND SIZE AS
THE HEXAGONAL PARQUET
FLOORING ON THE TOP LEVEL
BELOW, THE EXPOSED
LAMINATED ASH BEAMS
IN THE CEILING SHOW
EVIDENCE OF THE HOUSE’S
COMPLEX GEOMETRY116 ∑
Architecture