Connecting building between two chalets in Gstaad. The starting point was two chalets, slightly staggered from each other on a very beautifully located slope with an imposing view over Gstaad. The client wanted them spatially joined. A new elongated volume of 28 x 7 m was built under the existing road that ran between the two chalets, the volume absorbing the garage, a fitness room, a small storage-room and a room intended for art installations. On the one hand an underground staircase (nevertheless lit by two offset roof lights) leads from the latter room to the upper chalet: on the other hand a passageway made of darkened glazing connects to the main chalet. At nightime the passage, which has the effect of black crystal, is illuminated and forms an attractive point of arrival. By transposing the garage the main chalet was exposed and a clearly demarcated outside space was created between the chalet and the new building, the latter taking on the appearance of a buttress wall. This new exterior space is divided by dark, mysterious-looking glass bodies between an entrance area with the new and considerably flatter driveway for the garages and an more intimate area in which sculptures or art installations can be exhibited. The advantages of the projects are, on the one side the clarification of the exterior spatial situation and a corresponding enhancement of the whole property, and on the other the creation internally of a stimulating and varied connection between the two chalets. Taken as a whole, the project realises an exciting interlacement of traditional chalet architecture with contemporary architecture and art.

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