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Architects: Tormen Architekten AG
- Area: 1237 m²
- Year: 2019
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Photographs:Mark Drotsky Architekturfotografie
Text description provided by the architects. The plot on a sloping hillside in Kanton Solothurn is defined by two roads deriving from the south adjacent crossroad and a significant elevation of the terrain on the north side. The architecture explores the concept of creating a house within a house. With displacements in the outer monolith, various space was established outside as well as inside the building.
The apartment building consists of four maisonette condominiums accessed through the main staircase at the centre of the building. The bare concrete walls and staircase are executed with an OSB board shuttering. With strategically placed LED light bands the intricate structure of the concrete walls is accentuated.
With the main volume and routing determined, every apartment presented a unique floorplan. In each, the private rooms are separated from the collective ones by placing them on different floors. The lower apartments have the collective spaces on the ground floor with access to their respective gardens while the upper apartments are mirrored to provide access to spacious terraces on the top floor. With the gardens and terraces all facing southwest each apartment has a panoramic view of the Swiss Alps.
For the exterior a carbon grey facade panel was chosen. The dark colour emphasizes the outer contours of the monolith. As a contrast material a light sparrow beige was used to highlight the displacements in the main volume. At night the interactions between the dark and light elements becomes apparent.
The entrance to the underground garage and pedestrian entrance on the north side are embedded in the surroundings with red-rust Corten steel finishes. The landscape architect created a sequence of terraced elements that connect the north hillside with the south gardens which subsequently embed the building in its surroundings.
