Two-family house near Zurichberg
On the plot there was a park-like garden that belonged to the residential house to the north, which is also owned by the same family. In order to preserve the memory of the park, the new building was conceptually designed to be "pavilion-like" and not like another ponderous two-family house, as is common in the neighbourhood. The elongated new building with a light, airy expression will intertwine with its surroundings through lush planting on the roof, but also through the surrounding planting that will surround the building in the future.
Awareness of ecology and sustainability, natural materials and a pleasant indoor climate were central concerns of the clients from the very beginning, which the new building demonstrates almost didactically. It reflects current pressing issues and aims to show that even in the rather conservative granular development context of this neighbourhood, a building with cantilevered canopies that protect a sustainable, sensitive construction is possible. The tectonic layering of the floor slabs, resting on visible cantilevered beams, gives the building something "floating" above the ground, or reminiscent of a river steamer.
From close up, the massive walls of hempcrete develop an archaic, pre-modern expression that contrasts with and exaggerates the other, additively stacked construction character.
The fusion of superficially contradictory construction methods aims to show a way forward that both takes into account the achievements of modernity, but also enhances them through sustainable materialisation and makes them contemporary.
