Architects:Lütiens Padmanabhan Architekten

Area :1905 m²

Year :2020

Photographs :Stefano Graziani

Manufacturers :  Baumgartner FensterBaumgartner Fenster

Lead Architects :Oliver Lütjens, Thomas Padmanabhan, Valentina Pajaziti (project leader) Associates: Marine de Dardel, Pauline Delorme, Andrea Micanovic, Emma Lindén, Tobias von der Mühll, David Zhou

Construction Management :Büro für Bauökonomie

Civil Engineer :Haller + Partner AG

Building Engineering :Beat Joss + Partner

Electrical Engineering :Edeco AG

Building Physics :Gartenmann Engineering AG, Basel

Sanitary Engineering : HTP Gutzwiller

Fire Protection Planning : Rapp Infra AG, Basel

City : Therwil

Country : Switzerland

In Switzerland, the terraced house has been a popular building type since the postwar construction boom. With its stepped volume, large terraces, and sweeping views, it provided a solution to issues of modern housing in a hilly landscape. In more recent versions of the type, the entry to the underground parking garage has become the building’s main entrance, making it part of Switzerland’s contemporary car-centered suburban lifestyle.

The terraced house is located near the forest overlooking the countryside and embraces the modern, anti-romantic character of this building type. Its eight apartments have spacious terraces with sweeping views of rural Alsace across the French border. In contrast to the pastoral setting, the form of the building is highly rational and the result of a relentless process of maximizing the rentable space.

As a result, both plans and facade motifs are serial and non-compositional in character. The plans consist of a series of parallel lines that are inscribed into the slightly distorted building shape. The facades emphasize the overall tension emanating from the building’s volume.

Multiple windows are combined into long viewing boxes, reminiscent of minimalist sculptures. The terrace railings facing the landscape have a formal steel grid, while the side railings consist of a simple chain-link fence.

The apartments are organized around a central hall that extends from the terrace deep into the building. The hall is similar to a portego, the deep hall in a Venetian palace. It is flanked on both sides by bedrooms, a study, a working kitchen, and a winter garden.

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