L House / Philippe Stuebi

Architect: Philippe Stuebi
Location: Zurich, Switzerland
Project Team: Markus Schietsch, Sven Bestenheider, Christine Heimgartner, Philippe Stuebi
Budget: US$ 1.9M
Project Year: 2005
Photographs: Dominique Marc Wehrli

The expressive volumetry emerged thanks to the special form of the plot and the requirement of the constructor to place a maximal volume on the plot. With the method of the hollowing out the room program and the sculptural building body became incorporated. The sketch development was a work of lining up the demanded areas to a movement going through the house: stretch, widths, narrowing, grinding out from mass to a coherent sequence of space according to the principle of the enfilade.

Each area remains its completely specific character in size and form (conical entry area with clothes and guest wc.,large cubic double-story entrance hall, triangular loggia as color area, double-story inside rounded library which is downstairs three sided glazed, etc.) so that when entering the house various and surprising, only in moving itself the opening space experiences occur. The basement consists of large washing concrete elements (white carrara marble ball with white cement) which are interupted by space-high glazings. The three-sided glazing of the library in the basement ist reflected. Depending upon time of day and lighting conditions you can see the stored books or the reflected garden. The upper floors are implemented in bright lime finish and the glazings in nature-anodized aluminium.