The building is set back slightly from the street on an expansive green lawn. Its footprint measures forty by eighteen meters, and it has four stories crowned by a penthouse level. On the open south side, the branches of the site’s mature trees are reflected in the glazed facade of the winter garden. The apartment house is something between a commercial building and a palazzo.
We began by asking ourselves how one might live away from urban centers, in the so-called countryside. What emerged are apartments with simple large spaces, identical rooms, high doors, and a wood-framed winter garden. The materials are somewhat rustic, and the construction is handcrafted and robust.
And we made a few discoveries in the process: For example, the potential that sheet metal work has for architectural expression, or the importance that ancillary structures can have in anchoring such a large building to its surroundings – with the bicycle shed along the adjoining party wall, the round pavilion on the lawn, or the pergolas and wall segments between the apartment house and the street.
The house on Schulstrasse is our most economical project to date: we were able to build nearly forty apartments here for less than ten million Swiss francs.