Lakeside bungalow
Küsnacht, Switzerland
Project, realisation 2015-2016
Lakeside
bungalow.
Overview
Client
Private
Architecture
Froelich & Hsu Architekten AG, Zurich, Switzerland
Team ZPF
Enrico Cristini, Heike Egli-Erhart, Flavia Hofmeier, Anje Käser-Wassmer, Luis Looser, Roberto Plaza, Nico Ros, Davide Tanadini, Flamin Tröster
This large, gently sloping lakeside site was originally part of the neighbouring park-like property. The task of building a house here was as attractive as it was challenging: insufficient utilisation for the programme, a no-building zone on half the site, the groundwater level just below ground-floor level, the busy road Seestrasse directly behind the house and a site classed as “sensitive” by the authorities, surrounded by heritage-protected structures. In view of this initial situation, the building typology selected by the architects was that of the bungalow, which combines all living-related functions on one floor. The basement floor accommodates only technical, storage and hobby rooms.
The quality of the design resides in the clarity and simplicity of the intervention. First, walls are installed, which brace the slope and define the rooms. A slightly offset roof lies on top of these, projecting extensively. Floor-to-ceiling sliding front windows mark the edge of the space on the garden side. Lines are continuous, window profiles are minimised, white concrete is chosen as a uniform material for interior walls and parts of the facade – all of which facilitates a smooth transition between indoor and outdoor space.
The Japanese-looking pavilion in the arrival area mediates between the street level and the somewhat lower residential level. The entrance hall in the inside corner of the angular floor plan provides access to all rooms on the ground floor. Due to the location near water, the relationship with the outdoor space on all sides and the arrangement of everything on just one floor, the residential rooms convey an extraordinary ambience, which the garden assimilates and transfers to the surroundings, reflecting indoor elements. Thus, the residential rooms, the garden and the landscape are perceived jointly, depend on each other and create an atmospheric whole.
The load-bearing framework (stair core, exterior walls along the perimeter, facade and columns) was made as a solid construction in reinforced concrete. The core, all vertical load-bearing elements on the ground floor, the curving projecting roofs, the pavilion, and elements of the facade and surroundings were made with white concrete in exposed-concrete quality.