Multi-family House La Contenta / Aita Flury

Multi-family House La Contenta / Aita Flury - Concrete, HandrailMulti-family House La Contenta / Aita Flury - Facade, WindowsMulti-family House La Contenta / Aita Flury - Chair, Door, GlassMulti-family House La Contenta / Aita Flury - Table, Chair, Lighting, WindowsMulti-family House La Contenta / Aita Flury - More Images+ 6

Domat/Ems, Switzerland
Multi-family House La Contenta / Aita Flury - Windows, Facade
© Ralph Feiner

Text description provided by the architects. Not only the name of the house is an allusion to the Villa Foscari La Malcontenta, rather its design is driven by spatial interests deriving from engagement with Palladio’s work. It is centred on a visual equilibrium of the volume, on the interlocking types between interior and exterior space, on the interweaving of wall and buttresses, and on a hierarchization of the facades, formulated as the reaction of the building to its surroundings. An additional essential concern lies in balancing the interior spaces. As in Palladian corridor-free systems, it is the square rectangles that are commonly related to each other. 

Multi-family House La Contenta / Aita Flury - Chair, Door, Glass
© Ralph Feiner
Plan
Multi-family House La Contenta / Aita Flury - Table, Chair, Lighting, Windows
© Ralph Feiner

These “cells” are clearly experienced as separate units even though optically they are mostly laterally spanned with each other by large sliding-door openings. Similarly to the façade, the idea is centred on a negotiation of stillness and dynamic, openness and closedness, degrees of isolation and interlocking. By this means the relations vary slightly from floor to floor.

Diagram

The multi-family house with a Swiss Minergie Standard label is located in a zone where the building regulations prescribe pitched roofs. It contains eleven apartments (2½ to 3½ rooms) and a commercial premises.

Multi-family House La Contenta / Aita Flury - Glass
© Ralph Feiner

Constructively seen the house is a solid construction with exterior insulation, plastered and partially visually reinforced with sound-absorbing clinker bricks filled with cement. These bricks are used as a secondary ornament to articulate the facade, and additionally appear wherever people come into tactile contact with the facades.

Multi-family House La Contenta / Aita Flury - Facade, Windows
© Ralph Feiner

Project gallery

See allShow less

Project location

Address:Domat/Ems, Switzerland

Click to open map
Location to be used only as a reference. It could indicate city/country but not exact address.
About this office
Cite: "Multi-family House La Contenta / Aita Flury" 17 Jul 2016. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/791363/multi-family-house-la-contenta-aita-flury> ISSN 0719-8884

You've started following your first account!

Did you know?

You'll now receive updates based on what you follow! Personalize your stream and start following your favorite authors, offices and users.