This house was constructed out of precast concrete and subsequently completely covered in dark-colored roof tiles. Steel and wood were used for the window frames. The precast concrete walls accommodate an open plan layout. Wooden vertical boards cover the inside walls, hide all technical fixtures and serve as a visual extension of the hardwood floors.
streetview
© ALT . Published on February 13, 2014.
The back of the house is south-oriented, at a slant, in order to catch the sunlight. Inside, each room is defined by the carpentry: the open space at the back, the unusual bay window at the front, the long, lateral windows on the second floor… The large pane of the bay window brings in the outside, right into the interior, flooding the bathroom with daylight.
streetview
© ALT . Published on February 13, 2014.
The desk-space is opened up, yet remains a separate entity. All fixed elements are made of galvanized steel; all moving elements are sliding wooden constructions, set in wooden frames. The building’s roof-tiled shell fixes the volume into one uniform, compact visual whole, culminating in a capped roof.
view from the garden
© ALT . Published on February 13, 2014.
A striking set of ‘wings’ provides the roof garden with rigorously calculated shadow, while also lending the building its idiosyncratic outline.
interior
© ALT . Published on February 13, 2014.
The house is characterized by its building materials, which were deliberately chosen to obtain coherence. To this end, a specific place and function were assigned to each material: tiles, steel, wood, concrete, natural stone… and a tactile hierarchy was respected throughout. Inside, the use of any materials that are cold to the touch was avoided. The carpentry was done in solid wood, framed in steel. All light switches were fixed onto wooden skirting boards. The occupants’ feet will never have to walk on anything but wooden or natural stone flooring. As people may be reluctant to touch concrete, its tactile quality is owed more to the material’s visual impact. By polishing it, the concrete was made to look soft and velvety, especially in artificial light at night.
roof garden
© ALT . Published on February 13, 2014.
The ‘fish scale’ roof tiles lend the outside walls a jagged sharpness that echoes the idiosyncratic shape of the building. Only by looking at it from up close will passers-by notice that its entrance door is framed in wood.
detail
© ALT . Published on February 13, 2014.
The construction was conceived in such a way as to ensure the highest possible living quality for the longest time. No space gets wasted. Every inch of every floor, from level -1 right up to level 3, is meaningful space. As buildable surface was limited (120 m²) and retaining a sizeable urban garden was part of the brief, this was a necessity. Still, ‘meaningful’ does not necessarily imply functionality. On each level, some space was set apart for circulation winding all through the house, along some well-lit open spaces. At the same time, parts of the interior became outside space, bringing light and life into the house.
detail
© ALT . Published on February 13, 2014.
Half the roof was turned into yet another kind of urban garden, to ensure that this circulation axis would not lead to the dead end of a stifling attic, but culminated instead in a stunning view of the urban/suburban surroundings.
ground floor
© ALT . Published on February 13, 2014.
first level
© ALT . Published on February 13, 2014.
second level
© ALT . Published on February 13, 2014.
third level
© ALT . Published on February 13, 2014.
section
© ALT . Published on February 13, 2014.