Multigenerational House / Gautschi Lenzin Schenker Architects

Architects: Gautschi Lenzin Schenker Architects
Location: Teufenthal, Switzerland
Lead Architects: Philipp Schenker, Andreas Gautschi, Dominik Lenzin, Heike Fischer
Engineer: Konstruktiv GmbH Ingenieure und Planer, Gränichen
Area: 290.0 m2
Project Year: 2018
Photographs: Andreas Graber Photography, Zürich

Text description provided by the architects. The family home including a built-in apartment stands at a prominent position and generates a landmark for the beginning of the village. The surrounding buildings all come in different style and appearance, therefore laying the grounds to go for an independent language of architecture.

The building was designed as a calm stony block. Part of the façade was made in fair faced concrete and traditional rough trowel plaster, their colours harmonizing with one another to make a homogenous volume. The terrace on the upper floor which is precisely cut out within the volume and the differently set window openings, as well as the changing of the façade material give the rather simple and sharp cut volume an exciting and calm architectonic expression.

The outer walls are made of a insulating one-brick-system, where the multi-purpose room and the terrace are situated it is made of an insulating concrete. The chosen materials enhance the aspired monolithic expression. By mounting the windows on the inside of the walls the thickness of the material is visible, therefore exposing the compactness of the building´s shell. The solid wood window frames and part of the built-in components are completed in natural timber. Their fine and optical warm surface enhances an adequate contrast towards the rougher and more mineral façade.

The stairs which are situated in the middle of the building divide the ground floor into the built-in apartment of the grandparents and the entrance, children´s area and multi-purpose room belonging to the family apartment. The stairs connect the ground floor with the basement and the upper floor. It is also possible to go via the built-in apartment directly to the upper floor.

Master bedroom, kitchen, living and dining area as well as the viewing sheltered terrace are set on the upper floor. The topography around the house was mostly left alone. Fruit trees arrange the garden and an ironwood hedge shields the property from the main road. The carport is planned as a free-standing object.