Double-height lengths of unevenly spaced timber have been added to the side of this Swiss house by Feliz Architects, alluding to the shapes of nearby trees and screening the interiors from harsh sunlight (+ slideshow).

Swiss studio Feliz Architects designed Villa MM for a couple on a site surrounded by vineyards and mountains in the country's Grisons region.

"The owners wanted a house that is embedded harmoniously into the landscape, and also stands out through its interior qualities," architect Felix Held told Dezeen.

The tall timber boards were added to mirror the vertical quality of the surrounding landscape and emphasise the height of the rectangular building.

"The two-storey-high lamellas blend with the rows of trees from the adjacent vineyards, forming a key element in the integration of the building," said Held.

The timber boards were painted grey to match the concrete, which was chosen as the main construction material because of its local availability, and was poured on site in slabs.

Douglas fir was added to some sections of the exterior, including the garage door and entrance, to contrast with the concrete.

"The idea was to have a distinguished facade with a furniture-like quality for the main entrance," said Held.

"The timber is untreated and will turn more grey over time, which is common in the Pre-Alps area," he added.

The three-storey house has a garage, laundry and storage on the lower-ground floor, a TV room, living room, dining room, kitchen and guest bedroom on the upper-ground floor, and an office, library, master bedroom and master bathroom on the top floor.

Concrete was left exposed around the circulation areas in the centre of the house to give it a sense of weight and solidity.

"We wanted to create a strong first impression for the house. The cast concrete walls of the entrance hall have a certain roughness," said Held.

This is contrasted by a thin white metal balustrade on the stairs, as well as by timber flooring and joinery throughout the house.

"It was very important to balance the concrete inside with warmer, more tactile timber," said Held.

"The concrete works well for the more public areas such as the stairs because it creates an impression of support and stability, while the living areas are designed as alcove-like spaces for a warmer, more relaxing atmosphere."

The living room has windows that are 3.5 metres wide and three metres tall, and has a shelving unit built along one that doubles as a seating ledge to allow residents to enjoy the view.

A separate section of the living area features a fireplace and grey walls to create a more enclosed atmosphere.

"The darker walls match the dark oak floor, and glimpses of rosewood pick up on the colour of the flames from the fireplace," said Held.

Photography is by Ralph Feiner.

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News: Herzog & de Meuron has revealed its plans to redevelop the Basel campus of Swiss pharmaceuticals company Roche, adding a 205-metre-high tower and a research centre (+ slideshow).

Construction is already underway on the first new building for the the Roche campus – the corporate headquarters of the research-focused healthcare company. Herzog & de Meuron's redesign will create modern and sustainable office and laboratory facilities.

The first building, which staff will begin moving into in 2015, will comprise four blocks, ranging between 16 and 132 metres in height. It will contain 950 office and 950 laboratory workstations.

With approximately 50 storeys, a 205-metre-tall office tower will accommodate 1,700 employees and will be ready for occupation by 2021.

"With the Roche area development plan, we see a basic principle of our work realised, and that is densification," said a statement from Herzog & de Meuron, whose recently completed projects include a biologically filtered bathing lake and a Brazilian gymnasium.

"This is relevant for the entirety of Basel, even for all of Switzerland, as well as for the current national discourse regarding urban sprawl," added the Swiss firm.

The development will also include the two-year renovation of a historic office building designed by Swiss architect Otto R Salvisber in 1937, involving the preservation of its original facade.

Herzog & de Meuron will overhaul the site infrastructure and landscaping – adding a logistics centre focused on sustainable energy consumption, upgrading existing buildings, replacing the old underground car park, and integrating use of public transport and bicycles.

"The planned consolidation of the existing industrial site will eliminate the need to build over green zones," said Jürg Erismann, head of Roche's Basel and Kaiseraugst operations.

"Instead, Roche will be making more efficient use of those parts of the site that have already been developed but cannot be expanded."

"Sustainability is a top priority for all our construction projects," he added.

"For instance, assuming a comparable number of workplaces, the energy used in Building 1 will be only one fifth of the amount consumed in 40-year-old Building 74, which is due to be replaced as part of the site development project."

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Swiss architect Max Dudler has completed a granite office building near Zurich featuring a regular gridded facade and a street-level colonnade (+ slideshow).

The Richtiring building was designed by Max Dudler for a plot within a 72,000-square-metre masterplan developed by Italian architect Vittorio Magnago Lampugnani for the suburb of Wallisellen.

It is the final building to be completed in the new Richtiareal mixed-use development, which is located on a former industrial site between Wallisellen's railway station and a 1970s shopping centre.

The angular five-sided building borders a new public square along one edge and incorporates a series of "classic courtyards, alleys, arcades, and squares" intended to emulate the urban fabric of cities such as Berlin, Paris or Milan.

"The new building has the dimensions of a small city block, its design incorporating the classic elements of European urbanism," said the architect in a statement.

On the side facing the new main street, Dudler has introduced a covered arcade lined on one side by huge granite columns and on the other by shops and restaurants.

Two underground levels provide car parking while the five storeys above the ground floor accommodate offices, containing space for around 1,400 desks.

The uniform facades are also clad in slabs of grey granite, interrupted by evenly spaced rows of windows with bronze surrounds.

"Vertical columns, horizontal beams and deeply set large-format square windows give the large facades an even structure," the architect said. "The irregular cut of the building's basic shape gives the low-key, almost abstract design a special expression."

A triangular courtyard at the centre of the building is surrounded by white rendered walls, punctuated by rows of windows that overlook a landscaped garden and seating areas.

The offices are currently occupied by Switzerland's largest cable network provider UPC Cablecom. The positioning of entrances means they can easily be subdivided if the building is eventually required to accommodate different tenants.

Another of the buildings developed as part of the Richti district is the office of financial services company Allianz, which was designed by Dutch firm Wiel Arets Architects with a fritted glass facade that resembles onyx marble.

Photography is by Stefan Müller.

Project credits:

Project managers: Eva Hepke, Claudio Pasquini (until 2013), Nicole Gamisch (until 2010)
Full-service general contractor: Areal Generalunternehmung AG, Zurich
Team: Helene Bihlmaier, Merry Classen, Anne Gramatzki, Max Nalleweg, Luca Pessina, Tobias Schaer, Helga Schützeichel, Markus Weissenmayer, Pascal Glatz, Fabrice Passaplan, Franz Staeudinger, Larisa-Maria Vranceanu, Antonia Weyermann
Structural engineers: Jauslin + Stebler Ingenieure AG
Electrical planning: Herzog Kull Group Zurich AG
Building services: Brunner Haustechnik AG
Building physics and acoustics: Basler & Hofmann AG
Facade planning: Buri Müller Partner GmbH
Fire protection: Braun Brandsicherheit AG

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Concrete was cast over engineered wooden boards to give a textured finish to the walls of this apartment block in Zurich by Swiss architect Gus Wüstemann.

Gus Wüstemann designed the four-storey apartment building with a double-layered concrete shell.

Both outer and inner walls were cast over oriented strand board (OSB) –  a kind of engineered wood particle board – to create what the architect describes as "a rough, almost organic surface".

The building is named Stone H Apartment, after its distinctive H-shaped facade. It creates three new homes in a residential area north of Zurich's old town centre.

The structure was built into a slope to facilitate garden access for the pair of apartments that occupy the ground and first floors, while the two uppermost storeys form a duplex penthouse.

Contrasting with the textured concrete, the penthouse floor was cast in smooth concrete and set slightly back from the main facade.

Each of the three apartments is centred around a large open-plan living space with an integrated kitchen and has its own private terrace or balcony, which all face out towards the street.

Large windows have been arranged symmetrically across the front and rear facades of the building, where the living spaces are located, while smaller squares of glazing on the sides and corners bring light into bedroom and bathroom spaces.

"The goal was to achieve spaces you normally only get in private houses, but not in an apartment building," said Wüstemann, whose past projects include a home overlooking Lake Zurich.

"We wanted the living rooms to be outside rooms with maximum views and optimal exposure to receive the light. This while keeping the upmost privacy in the dense context of the city," he said.

In the first-floor flat, a concrete bench at the rear of the space also offers residents a step up into the back garden, while the ground-floor home features access to banked gardens at the front of the building.

Kitchen islands for each apartment have been made using textured concrete, while storage units have been constructed from OSB to echo the imprinted surfaces of the concrete.

The floors were created from poured concrete, offering a smooth surface underfoot.

"The different cast surfaces enhance the feeling that the living room is actually an outer space," said the architect.

In the bathrooms, the bath tubs and sinks are submerged into blocks of textured concrete.

Light fixtures are recessed in the concrete formwork to create indirect illumination that can be spotted around the edges of the concrete slabs above the bath, as well as in strips over the kitchen.

Photography is by Bruno Helbling and homegate.

Project credits:

Project Team: Jan Kubasiewicz, Marta Balsera Goni, Eftychia Papathanasiou, Silvia Pujalte
Ingenieur: Born Partner AG
Baumeister: Corti AG

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A factory hall is one of Frank Gehry's three contributions to the Vitra Campus at Weil am Rhein in Germany. Twenty-five years after its completion, Swiss architect Aurélie Blanchard has revamped the building's canteen (+ slideshow).

Canadian architect Frank Gehry completed the Factory Building for Vitra in 1989 – the same time as the celebrated Vitra Design Museum and the smaller Vitra Design Museum Gallery – at the campus that has now become a popular tourist attraction for the brand.

Swiss architect Aurélie Blanchard was this year commissioned to restyle some of the building's interiors, starting with the canteen.

Her aim was to inject a more homely atmosphere into the industrial space, introducing some of Vitra's popular furniture and homeware items alongside low-level lighting and foliage.

"The brief was to bring to the existing canteen space the domesticity one would find in a proper restaurant while respecting the industrial and communal character of the room," said Blanchard, whose past projects include a copper-lined Basel restaurant.

"The design aims to bring warmth and diversity whilst keeping a high sense of minimalism and abstraction through the device of monochromy," she said.

Most of the space is taken up by a series of long canteen tables that span the whole width. Beside these, the architect has added a variety of different Vitra chairs that vary from Charles and Ray Eames' DSW Chair to the Basel Chair by Jasper Morrison and Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec's plant-inspired Vegetal.

All of the chairs are black, helping to tie together the different styles while also contrasting with the oak tabletops.

"The mixture of their different lines and style is unified through their black monochromy," said Blanchard.

"The iconic chairs are thus being reduced to the essence of their silhouettes, whilst the horizontal planes of the large communal oak tables bring an element of warmth and domesticity."

Cushioned seating runs round the room's perimeter, while high-back seating creates a more comfortable dining area in one corner.

Vitra's Corniches shelves create a space for plants along the walls, which have been painted in a subtle shade of green, and low-hanging bell-shaped pendant lights – designed by Finnish architect Alvar Aalto in the 1930s – contrast with the industrial lighting above.

Aurélie Blanchard is now working on some of the other spaces in the building, which contains offices, production rooms, a showroom and a test centre.

Other recent additions to Vitra's famous campus include a fictitious home by Studioilse, a micro-home by Renzo Piano and a combined viewing tower and helter skelter by artist Carsten Höller. The site is best known for Herzog & de Meuron's VitraHaus showroom, as well as buildings by Tadao Ando, Alvaro Siza and Zaha Hadid.

Photography is by Mark Niedermann.

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News: Danish firm 3XN has shown the first images of its design for the new headquarters of the International Olympic Committee in Lausanne, Switzerland.

According to 3XN, the new administrative home of the organisation governing the Olympic Games will feature a "dynamic, undulating facade" and an "open and flexible" interior.

Olympic Unity House will consolidate the IOC's existing operations around Lausanne, creating offices for up to 600 employees on the edge of Lake Geneva.

"In recognition of the symbolism of the Olympic Games and needs of the organisation, we designed the new IOC headquarters around three key elements: movement, flexibility and sustainability," said Jan Ammundsen, senior partner at 3XN, whose previous projects include the Copenhagen headquarters of the United Nations.

3XN was selected in April to develop its design for Olympic Unity House, ahead of 11 shortlisted architects including OMA, Toyo Ito and Amanda Levete.

"With its dynamic, undulating facade, the building will appear different from all angles and convey the energy of an athlete in motion," added Ammundsen, explaining that the building's design will feature "as few structural constraints as possible".

"This open and flexible environment will adapt to multiple work styles now and in the future. Our design is also intended to encourage interaction, communication and knowledge sharing among staff."

The new headquarters will occupy a 24,000-square-metre opposite Château de Vidy, the historic home of the IOC. The design team say the structure will respect the legacy of the old building and the parkland setting.

Energy efficient systems will be integral to the design, including lake-water pumping, photovoltaic panels and daylight optimisation.

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Swiss studio Bureau A has concealed a wooden cabin inside an artificial rock and transported it to a remote site in the Swiss Alps.

Bureau A, a studio led by architects Leopold Banchini and Daniel Zamarbide, designed the mountain shelter to pay tribute to the central character in the novel Derborence by Swiss writer Charles-Ferdinand Ramuz.

In the story, a shepherd named Antoine becomes trapped amongst rocks after a landslide, and survives there for seven weeks before finding his way home. The structure is named Antoine after him.

"The mountains have the power to call for feelings of fascination and fear at the same time," said the architects. "Switzerland has a strong tradition of observing the Alps, living with them, hiding inside them."

The shelter comprises a simple wooden cabin, encased within a concrete shell with the form of a huge rock. The interior is only revealed by a pair of small windows and a recessed doorway.

Inside, the knotty timber has been left exposed on walls, floors and ceilings. Flaps fold down from the walls to create seating, a table and a bed, so that one person can stay comfortably inside.

"Antoine creates an Alpine shelter, a precarious 'Existenzminimum' somewhat subversive in its use where one can freely enter and hide," said the architects, whose past projects include a pavilion made from recycled windows and a performance space on a tricycle.

"It contains the very basic architectural elements – fireplace, bed, table, stool, window – but demands to the visitor some risk taking, as the rock hangs literally on the rock fall field," they added.

The project was commissioned to host artist residencies for a programme run by the Verbier 3d Foundation. It was built by hand in a mountain village and transported to the site of the back of a lorry.

Photography is by Dylan Perrenoud.

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A 150-year-old farm complex in Switzerland has been converted into an assortment of office and apartment blocks by Zürich studio EM2N (+ slideshow).

EM2N won a competition to develop the 7,000-square-metre Hammer Farm estate in Cham, a municipality bordering Lake Zug in Switzerland.

The historic complex had been adapted and extended many times since its opening in 1854, resulting in a jumble of farmhouse and out-buildings of different ages. EM2N overhauled the entire site, creating the new mixed-use complex.

Existing two- and three-storey buildings were converted into live-work spaces. The architects re-skinned and extended the barns, remodelled the interior of existing farmhouses, and also added several concrete and timber-clad blocks to provide additional accommodation.

"Over the course of the years an interesting catalogue of differentiated floor plan and construction typologies with different grains has developed," said the architects. "Our proposal sees the present conversion as a further natural development stage."

The structures are all clustered around a paved courtyard, interspersed with patches of gravel and grass. Sloping pathways lead to the various entrances.

A traditional farmhouse with a hooded tiled roof and strips of wood laid into its plaster facades has been sectioned into flats, while a converted barn was covered in lengths of dark timber reminiscent of the open wooden cladding often used on cow sheds, known as byres.

On the upper floor of the building, the timber framework that supports the hooded roof was left exposed and a concrete box was inserted to subdivide the space. Glass balustrades enclose a living area on top of the new level.

"The aim is to achieve an atmospherically dense ensemble in which the old and the new buildings can coexist on an equal footing," added the team. "A lively mix of spaces for working and living will remain the trademark of this former farm estate."

A new concrete housing block features a pitched roof that keeps the building in tune with its neighbours. Inside, a staircase with angular white balustrades and dark timber treads connects the four storeys.

A Y-shaped stainless-steel rainwater down pipe was added to the new concrete building to match the cool-toned grey walls, while copper drain pipes tone with the wooden cladding of another building.

"The existing spatial and typological rules form the basis for the new-build development," said the team. "The old buildings are converted by means of carefully restrained interventions."

Photography is by Roger Frei.

Project credits:

Partners: Mathias Müller, Daniel Niggli
Project leaders: Noémi Necker, Gerry Schwyter (associate), Michael Zürcher
Project team: Gisele Antunes Gloor, Fabienne Heinrich, Fabian Hörmann (associate), Marc Holle (associate), Sidsel Kromann, Bernard Radi, Philipp Reichelt, Maude Richner, Nina Störck
Client: Hammer Retex AG

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News: the firm led by American architect Thom Mayne has been selected to design a new 100-suite hotel adjacent to Peter Zumthor's Therme Vals spa in Switzerland. Update: the competition jury has now "dissociated itself" from the decision.

Los Angeles-based Morphosis – known for buildings including the Perot Museum of Nature and Science in Dallas and the Hollywood campus of Emerson College – was chosen ahead of New York architect Steven Holl and London studio 6a Architects for the luxury hotel project in Vals.

The client for the project, 7132, already operates one hotel beside the Therme Vals spa – a building considered by many as one of the most important works by Swiss architect Peter Zumthor.

Built over the only thermal springs in the Graubünden canton, the spa was completed in 1996. It features walls of locally sourced Valser quartzite slabs and a grass roof.

The new hotel is planned nearby. Morphosis is expected to reveal its competition-winning design next month at an event in New York City.

Mayne – who was awarded the Pritzker Prize for architecture four years before Zumthor in 2005 – commented: "We are thrilled about the jury's decision and look forward to working with a visionary client to create a unique design that resonates with this incredible destination in the Alps."

A total of eight firms were originally shortlisted for the competition, which was launched last June. A jury led by Sauerbruch Hutton co-founder Louisa Hutton recommended the schemes by Morphosis, Holl and 6a, before the client made its final decision.

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News: the jury tasked with selecting the design for a new hotel adjacent to Peter Zumthor's Therme Vals spa in Switzerland has "dissociated itself" with the client's decision to appoint Los Angeles firm Morphosis.

7132, which already operates one hotel nearby, announced this week that the competition jury led by Sauerbruch Hutton co-founder Louisa Hutton had recommended three schemes – by Morphosis, Steven Holl Architects and 6a Architects. The client named Thom Mayne's firm as the winner.

But the five jurors have now issued a statement through the Swiss Society of Engineers and Architects (SIA) distancing themselves from the appointment, which they claim took place when "a decision had not yet been made".

Translated from German into English, the jury's statement claims that an initial assessment round left "important questions unanswered" and resulted in "no clear winner".

It states that "significant question marks" had been raised regarding several factors, including architectural form, scale, materials and relationship to site, and that the competition had thus been terminated.

The other members of the jury were SIA president Stefan Cadosch, Italian architect Vittorio Lampugnani, architect and ETH Zürich professor Sacha Menz and EM2N co-founder Daniel Niggli.

A total of eight firms were originally shortlisted for the competition to design the 100-suite hotel beside the Therme Vals spa, which was completed in 1996 by Swiss architect Peter Zumthor over the only thermal springs in the Graubünden canton.

Morphosis – known for buildings including the Perot Museum of Nature and Science in Dallas and the Hollywood campus of Emerson College – is expected to reveal its design at an event in New York City next month.

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Gianni Botsford Architects worked with translucent concrete to create this boxy garden pavilion in Zurich, dedicated to "the old fashioned art of smoking" (+ slideshow).

London-based Gianni Botsford Architects was invited by British landscape architect Todd Longstaffe-Gowan to design the eight-square-metre Smoking Pavilion for the newly sculpted garden of a private house.

"This would be a shelter where it would be possible to sit and relax and admire the surrounding garden, lake and mountains whilst our clients could partake of one of their favourite pastimes without affecting anybody in the house: the old-fashioned art of smoking," explained the design team.

"Our idea was to create a simple structure sitting quietly in the garden, possessing a richness and complexity in its materiality that would develop several relationships with the surroundings."

The small structure was built from five slabs of translucent concrete – an aggregate material made by casting light-conducting elements into fine-grain concrete.

In this case small rods of acrylic plastic, also known as PMMA, were set into the concrete in a dense grid. These make the material slightly see-through, allowing a small amount of daylight and shadow to permeate the pavilion's interior.

"We wanted the pavilion to be a shelter encouraging a subtle perception of the garden and sunlight," said the architects, whose past projects include a sunken house extension with fritted glass walls.

"We have been aware of the existence of translucent concrete since it was first invented in 2001 and it felt like the appropriate material for this project, because it allowed surrounding colours, shapes, movements and shadows to be perceived from the interior," they added.

The five concrete slabs form the floor, roof and three walls. The architects believe it is the first ever self-supporting translucent-concrete building.

"The casting was a delicate operation because of the combination of the dense pattern of PMMA translucent elements, the carefully positioned stainless-steel reinforcement and the thinness of the panels," the architects said. "The final material looks very simple, but is in fact the result of precise and advanced engineering."

Two strip foundations lift the building up off the lawn, meaning part of the floor slab had to be cantilevered. Each slab has a thickness of 80 millimetres to prevent the structure looking too bulky.

After dark, integrated lighting allows the concrete surface to glow with colour.

Photography is by James Morris.

Project credits:

Architect: Gianni Botsford Architects
Landscape architect: Todd Longstaffe-Gowan
Structural engineer: TALL Engineers & Hemmerlein Ingenieurbau
Checking engineer: HTB Ingenieure + Planer
AG contractor: Hemmerlein Ingenieurbau
Landscape contractor: Bahnsen Gartengestalter
Specialist translucent concrete supplier: Litracon Bt=

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is a translucent-concrete garden folly appeared first on Dezeen.

Competition: Dezeen has teamed up with Lars Müller Publishers to give readers the chance to win one of five copies of a book documenting the last century of design in Switzerland.

100 Years of Swiss Design presents an overview of the country's achievements in furniture and product design.

"This reference work is the first to present and discuss a comprehensive show of Swiss designers' achievements, from the anonymous to the famous," said a statement from the publishers.

The book is organised chronologically, with projects selected by the Museum für Gestaltung Zürich, Christian Brändle, Renate Menzi and Arthur Rüegg.

It includes thirty essays by designers and critics describing themes that emerged during their careers, as well as 100 key works from the Designsammlung – the world's largest collection of Swiss design.

"Besides the design process, manufacturing techniques, distribution, and reception, the changing roles of the designer — from mediator between form and function, entrepreneur, social worker, to branding architect — are examined," said the publishers.

Text is accompanied with large-format images of iconic products and their use in context, as well as concept sketches and graphics for advertising campaigns.

The 376-page hardback publication is available from the Lars Müller Publishers website in both English and German.

Competition closes 19 March 2015. Five winners will be selected at random and notified by email. Winners' names will be published in a future edition of our Dezeen Mail newsletter and at the top of this page. Dezeen competitions are international and entries are accepted from readers in any country.

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An old house perched at the foot of the Swiss Alps has been converted into a museum and gallery to exhibit the work of a local artist.

Architect Matteo Inches was approached by the 80-year-old daughter of late Swiss artist and archaeologist Aldo Crivelli to create the gallery, named MeCri Museum. It hosts exhibitions of her father's drawings and paintings, as well as temporary displays of sculptures and paintings by other artists.

Inches converted a four-storey 19th-century building in Minusio – an Alpine town situated on the shores of Lake Maggiore near the Swiss-Italian border – to house the museum and gallery.

"The MeCri Museum began with the dream of a 80-year-old woman to realise a museum in memory of her father Aldo Crivelli, who was a famous archaeologist and also a painter and writer of the southern Swiss region of Ticino," explained Inches.

Local planning regulations dictated the exterior form of the building remain unchanged, down to the number of openings and height of the pitched roof, but the architects were allowed free-reign over the interior.

In contrast to the traditional exterior, the interior space has been gutted to make way for a series of double- and single-height gallery spaces, linked by a white metal staircase.

Tall glass panels enclose the stairs that run up one side of the building, allowing natural light to illuminate the stairwell.

"The interior of the building was totally emptied and completely rebuilt apart from the vaulted room on the ground floor, which is a reminder of the building's original function: a home," said the architect.

The spaces are finished with neutral-coloured floors and white walls that create a blank canvas on which to hang drawings and paintings.

Small oblong windows and glazed doorways provide views over the town, lake and across to the mountains. The glazing is set flush with the inner surfaces to emphasise the thickness of the old stone walls.

"The interior was kept white to create a canvas for the colours of the artwork presented and also to let the scenery outside become another focus of the visit," said the architect.

Two atriums cut into opposite sides of the floor plan provide pockets of double-height gallery space. Glass balustrades front small balconies that overlook the newly opened atriums.

"The exposition spaces are a sequence of continuous spaces, two in double height, which create new spatial experiences and relationships between each floor," explained the architects.

The upper floor is topped by an exposed timber roof structure, which has been painted white in keeping with the gallery walls.

An extension for the museum is planned for 2015-16. It will include the construction of a small pavilion against a stone boundary wall and the creation of a courtyard between the two structures.

Photography is by Marcelo Villada Ortiz.

Project credits:

Designer and architect: Studio Inches Architettura
Project team: Matteo Inches, Nastasja Geleta, Tommaso Pareschi

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The American architecture studio led by Pritzker Prize-winner Thom Mayne has unveiled its design for a 381-metre-tall mirrored hotel tower in Vals, Switzerland.

Morphosis Architects has released images of a slim, glassy skyscraper that it says will mirror the surrounding landscape of the Swiss Alps.

"As much as possible, the hotel is a minimalist act that re-iterates the site and offers to the viewer a mirrored, refracted perspective of the landscape," said Mayne.

The 53,000-square-metre building will include 107 guest rooms and suites, as well as spas, a ballroom and a library, restaurants, a cafe, bar, sky bar and a gallery. It will also have a swimming pool and fitness centre.

"The tower's reflective skin and slender profile camouflage with the landscape, abstracting and displacing the valley and sky," said the architects. "The combination of one-room-per-floor and a narrow floor-plate afford exclusive panoramic views of the Alps."

Morphosis was commissioned to design the hotel following a controversial competition process, which saw the jury distance themselves from the appointment.

Due for completion in 2019, the building will be part of the Vals resort, which already includes a hotel as well as a world-famous spa building by Swiss architect Peter Zumthor.

"Morphosis was selected by the client for the strength of their proposal, which uses a Minimalist approach to help the hotel blend with the mountain landscape at the existing resort campus," said a statement from the firm.

"The new hotel and arrival is defined by three forms: a podium linking the building with neighboring structures; a cantilever containing a restaurant, cafe, spa, and bar – public amenities shared with the town; and a tower holding a sky bar, restaurant, and 107 guest rooms with panoramic views."

The structure is called the 7132 Tower after the client 7132 Ltd, which manages the resort in Vals.

It will be Morphosis Architects' first project in Switzerland. The LA-based firm is known for buildings including the Perot Museum of Nature and Science in Dallas and the Hollywood campus of Emerson College.

A total of eight firms were originally shortlisted for the competition, which was launched last June. The jury led by Sauerbruch Hutton co-founder Louisa Hutton recommended three schemes by Morphosis, American architect Steven Holl and London firm 6a Architects, before 7132 made its final decision.

But the five jurors later issued a statement through the Swiss Society of Engineers and Architects distancing themselves from the appointment, which they claimed took place when "a decision had not yet been made".

7132 was founded by Vals resident Remo Stoffel, who bought the Swiss resort from the local government in 2012. 7132 now manages the existing hotel as well as Zumthor's Therme Vals spa – considered one of the Swiss architect's most important works.

Built over the only thermal springs in the Graubünden canton, the spa was completed in 1996. It features walls of locally sourced Valser quartzite slabs and a grass roof.

Japanese architect Tadao Ando is also designing a park for the site, called the Valser Path, which is due for completion in 2017.

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Zurich architects Dürig designed angular concrete frames to indicate the position of staircases and escalators at the Swiss city's main railway station, which descend from the platforms to a new subterranean station and shopping precinct (+ slideshow).

Dürig was commissioned to develop the underground Löwenstrasse Transit Station, which aims to improve the experience for passengers using the cross-city rail link at Zurich's Hauptbahnhof.

The station comprises two 420-metre-long platforms that will be able to accommodate longer intercity services arriving into the four adjacent tracks when all the building work is completed.

Sandwiched between this level and the existing overground station is a new shopping centre that extends east and west on either side of the River Sihl, which flows from north to south beneath the main station.

"The three functionally differing levels – the platform level, the shopping level and the historical overground station hall – are strictly separated from each other in spatial terms," said the architects in a statement about the project. "This differentiation is also expressed in the materialisation, creating readily identifiable locations."

On the overground level, the raised concrete volumes that project from the surface of the platforms direct passengers towards the lower floors.

"Vertical means of access such as stairs, escalators and lifts are formed as continuous solid-structure conveyance cores running through all the levels," the architects said.

"Their geometry responds to the existing built surroundings, forming individual volumes that, in part, also perform structural functions, for instance acting as bearings for existing supports in the listed roof of the railway station," the architects added.

In addition to the sloping entrances to staircases and escalators, simple concrete boxes contain lifts that descend through slanted shafts intersecting the shopping level.

The unusual angled shafts are required because the tracks for the new underground station and the terminal above could not be aligned.

Throughout the underground spaces, large passages facilitate straightforward circulation even when the station is busy. The open layout of these areas also allows passengers a clear sight of overhead signage.

Materials are used to differentiate the various functions, with the shopping spaces distinguished by light and highly polished surfaces that provide a neutral backdrop for the retailers' branding.

"The architecture is highly functional and dispenses with decoration," said the architects. "The shop window displays, the advertising, the SBB wayfinding system and the people themselves impart enough colour to the spaces. The architecture forms a calm backdrop to the signage, the uses and the advertising."

A darker feel is created in the underground station, where strip lighting is limited to the edges of the platforms so a contrast is formed with the tunnel walls and tracks.

The warm tone of the lighting is supplemented by metallic ceiling panels, while a cooler light filtering down through the concrete circulation spaces emphasises the transition between the levels.

Photography is by Ruedi Walti.

Project credits:

Architecture: Dürig AG, Zürich; Baumann Armin, Brantschen Armin, Breckner Irene, Buckingham Bruce, Cornuz Gilbert, Domagalski Joanna, Dürig Jean-Pierre, Dürr Judith, Fitzi Otto, Handte Sandra, Isler Dominik, Kaufmann Isabelle, Kempf Simon, Kimmig Bettina, Kitanishi Luiza, Labhart Katharina, Laue Sacha, Noe Tobias, Ramser Benedict, Simic Sandra, Trottmann Simone, Wengle Martin
Project coordination, civil engineering: ig zalo, Basler & Hofmann AG, Esslingen und Pöyry Infra AG, Zürich
Planning Team:
General contractor: uas unternehmen für architektur und städtebau ag, Zürich
Quantity surveillance and site supervision: Caretta + Weidmann Baumanagement AG, Zuerich
Building services, fire protection, building physics: Amstein + Walthert AG, Zürich
Acoustics: BAKUS GmbH, Zürich
Water supply of fire protection: IWAG Ingenieure AG, Zürich
Infrastructural facilities: hrwehrle, Schachen
Railway engineering: ig züriBT, Zürich

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to platforms at Zurich Hauptbahnhof appeared first on Dezeen.

A layer of glass envelopes this pair of homes in Zurich, while a zigzagging concrete partition between them is the only opaque wall in the building (+ slideshow).

Named House with One Wall, the concrete and glass building was designed by Swiss architect Christian Kerez for a plot in Witikon, east of the city. Perched on a slope, it offers residents views of nearby Lake Zurich.

The building features an elongated hexagonal floor plan, and all six of its elevations are wrapped in glazing. Inside, a zigzagging concrete wall divides the structure in half to create semi-detached homes for two families.

Kerez purposely conceived this concrete partition as the building's only opaque wall, lending the house its name.

"The dividing wall is the only wall in the entire house," explained the architect, who completed the project in 2007. "It cannot be crossed anywhere."

"It is the load-bearing structure and the installation core, its folds define all of the rooms and it determines how the view from the entirely glazed building is divided between the two living units," he added.

The course of the concrete wall changes from floor to floor, providing a variety of nooks and recesses on either side for kitchens, bathrooms and storage spaces. This arrangement allows service areas to be neatly tucked into the wall, leaving living spaces uncluttered.

The shape of the wall is reversed on each side, producing variations between the two residences – a concave space on one side corresponds with a protrusion on the other, widening and narrowing the floor plan at different points.

"The wall between the two units has folds in it so that it will not fall over, like folding a piece of paper so that it can stand on end," said Kerez, explaining how he devised the wall as both a separating and structural element.

"The folds are different from floor to floor. One room is concave, another convex. One room is open plan, another has sections."

Only the bathroom in each property is completely enclosed. There are no further partition walls and each floor consists of one long, open-plan room designed to take advantage of the views.

Concrete slabs are left exposed across the ceilings, floors and walls to create a pared-back aesthetic. The glass walls are interrupted only by slim white frames and drapes can be pulled along the glazing to provide varying degrees of privacy.

A tall enclosure surrounds the sloping plot, concealing the ground floor of each home and providing a small first floor garden on top of its walls. Two doors in the wall lead from the pavement into the two halves of the house.

Concrete staircases connect to the first-floor living area of each home, where glass doors slide back to provide access to the garden on top of the perimeter wall.

Staircases with open risers ascend through oblong openings in the concrete ceiling slab of the living room. The stairs follow the path of the wall, snaking from side to side through the core of the house on either side.

"The cascading staircase is the final and perhaps most important attempt to wrest spatial clarity and expansiveness from a very ordinary brief and a restricted plot of land," added the architect.

Photography is by Walter Mair.

Project credits:

Architect: Christian Kerez
Project team: Jürg Keller, Andreas Skambas, Fumiko Takahama, Ute Burdelski, Ryuichi Inamochi
Structural engineer: Dr. Schwartz Consulting AG, Zug, Joseph Schwartz
Facade: Krapf AG, St-Gallen
Construction management: BGS, Rapperswil

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by Christian Kerez into semi-detached homes appeared first on Dezeen.

Tasked with designing a house that doesn't take over its whole site, Swiss architect Christian von Düring created a timber-clad upper storey that straddles two smaller ground-level structures (+ slideshow).

Located in the Swiss town of Tannay, the residence was designed by Geneva-based Christian von Düring for a family. The brief was to maximise the spatial potential of a relatively narrow suburban plot, without compromising the size of the garden.

He also had to ensure the built area remained within local size restrictions.

Düring's solution was to create two separate single-storey buildings at ground level, then span them with a much larger upper floor – hence the project name, Bridge House.

This created plenty of space inside the house, but also allowed for a sheltered space at the centre of the site, which is used by the family for outdoor activities and can be illuminated by lighting integrated into the underside of the bridge.

The ground-floor volume facing the access road forms a garage, while the living spaces are tucked away at the back, allowing them to open to the garden.

"Because the south-facing part of the site is exposed to the road, I wanted to compensate for that by creating another outside space at the back that is used differently to the front garden," von Düring told Dezeen.

"I proposed creating a volume for the daytime uses and on the other side I put the garage and then I put all the bedrooms in a line on top," he added.

The upper storey cantilevers above the two stucco-coated brick plinths and accommodates balconies off the bedrooms at either end.

One of the balconies extends over a terrace and the other almost touches the adjacent trees.

Two timber trusses that span the entire length of the top floor give this unit the necessary structural strength.

Its triangular frame is visible in the deep sills of windows that run along both sides of the building.

"An open beam is more economical than a full beam and it meant we could also have windows," von Düring added.

"The clients liked that you see the structure as it goes up and down and through the windows so you feel like you're inside a huge beam."

The property's entrance is situated beneath the bridging element and opens onto a suspended wooden staircase.

"Once inside, one is immediately faced with an open suspended staircase connecting to the above volume, through which one perceives a large room open onto the garden containing a kitchen with its large dining table and a spacious living room," said von Düring.

To the right of the entrance is a guest bedroom and bathroom, while a cloakroom is positioned opposite.

The stairs lead up to a landing next to a play area and a corridor that stretches along one side of the space to connect the three bedrooms.

Larch battens arrayed horizontally along the exterior of the bridging structure are intended to accentuate its horizontality, and break up the visual height and mass of the house.

The timber pieces are angled at 45 degrees to accentuate the effect of light and shadow on the surfaces. The surfaces of the wood will also age differently in accordance with their particular levels of exposure to the sun and rain.

Photography is by Thomas Jantscher.

Project credits:

Architects: Christian von Düring
Engineers: Ingeni SA
Contractor: ATBA SA

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Dutch architect Christian Müller has overhauled the interior of a chalet in the Swiss Alps, creating a pair of apartments that combine exposed stone walls with raw concrete and distressed wood.

Christian Müller was approached by the two owners of Casa Sur Ual, a 350-year-old house in the Swiss village of Vella, and asked to divide it into two family apartments.

The residence features timber and stone walls as well as a traditional pitched roof with overhanging eaves, and is surrounded by picturesque properties of the same style.

To remain in keeping with its neighbours, this traditional shell was preserved. But inside, existing stone and timber walls have been updated with the addition of new materials and furnishings.

"Villages in the Alpine region are threatened with being turned into ghost towns," said Müller. "This is being caused by a number of factors."

"The present building stock has a large portion of second homes, which are hardly being used."

"The amenities offered do not live up to modern standards and there is preciously little room to build new houses," he added.

The two families each own one third of the property outright, while the remaining third is co-owned. Children's bedrooms, a sauna and storage spaces are located in this part-owned section of the building, which can be adapted as the families' needs change.

"The result resembles something of a three-dimensional puzzle," said the architect. "It is like a scheme of 'pay half, use two-thirds'."

Pale wooden floorboards, integrated furnishings and doors contrast with the craggy stonework and ageing timber. A new cast-concrete staircase provides access to the upper floor in one apartment.

Openings were cut into the tops of some of the original timber walls to produce mezzanine sleeping areas.

Bathroom windows are set behind the building's gappy timber cladding, which allows light to filter into the space.

When not in use by the families, the two apartments can be opened up to each other and rented out to groups of holidaymakers.

"The Alpine regions are an important part of the Swiss landscape and the Swiss artful way of life," said the architect. "The flexible use of existing buildings not only reinforces the local economy but can be, as this conversion proves, ecologically meaningful as well."

Photography is by Susanna von Känel.

Project credits:

Architect: Christian Müller
Local architect: Lukas Egli, Projektierbar
Clients: Kühne and von Känel, Müller and Müller-Züger
Engineering: Ingenieurbüro Walter Bieler

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into a pair of family apartments appeared first on Dezeen.

The tiled roof of this residence in Switzerland has been raised by one metre to provide extra height for the newly renovated spaces within. 

The house, which is owned by an elderly couple and located in the southern Swiss town of Solduno, was refurbished and extended by architect Matteo Inches and his firm Studio Inches, based in the nearby city of Locarno.

While parts of Casa Desgraz date back to the beginning of the 20th century, others were added as recently as the 1960s, resulting in an amalgamation of several different forms.

But strict local planning restrictions prevented the relatively new exterior from being significantly altered.

"The project deals with the local building laws applied to constructions in a protected nucleus zone that don't allow existing openings to be modified or the typology of the roof to be changed," explained Inches.

"Due to these restrictions the structural envelope was not changed."

Just within the parameters of the restrictions was a small vertical extension, which allowed for an extra metre of wall to be inserted below a pitched roof with overhanging eaves.

While the exterior had to remain largely unchanged, Inches took the opportunity to completely gut and rebuild the interior spaces.

Double-height spaces were opened up to house a first-floor living room, and walls and floors were lined with planks of oak.

"The double-height space in the living room increases the perception of verticality and size of the space as well as allowing a visual and acoustic connection between the sleeping area and the lower spaces," said Inches.

"Wood is applied as the main finishing material; it is used like a coating that wraps the spaces and increases the perception of being enclosed in a private, warm and domestic environment," he continued.

The interior layout was reorganised, with utility rooms and a guest suite set at ground level, and the living and dining area positioned on the double-height floor above.

A master suite and en-suite bathroom occupy the uppermost floor, below the new roof.

A timber staircase emerges onto an internal balcony to one side of this upper-floor bathroom, which is contained within a curving pod suspended above one corner of the lounge.

The small balcony was envisaged as a reading room, so that the couple can "feel the presence of the other person despite being on a separate level".

Photography is by Simone Bossi.

Project credits:

Architect: Studio Inches
Project team: Matteo Inches, Nastasja Geleta, Vincenzo Rothen

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This concrete footbridge spans a road in Lausanne, Switzerland, to connect a metro station with the scenic Sauvabelin Forest (+ slideshow).

Designed by local firm 2b Architectes, the La Sallaz Footbridge extends across the main road into the city from the north-east, connecting the recently constructed La Sallaz station with the eastern entrance to the 80-hectare woodland.

Both the topography of the natural landscape and the city informed the design of the structure, which comprises a slender length of concrete with a faceted exterior surface.

At one end it rests over a grass bank, while the other side is supported by two pairs of angled columns.

"The duality of different geometries at the location becomes a leitmotif for the bridge construction," said 2b Architectes.

"Depending on the perception from the different perspectives – whether one crosses over the bridge as a pedestrian, or under it as a car driver – the design presents its play of crisscrossing lines between the square and the street, thereby shifting them together into a characteristic form."

The pathway, which looks like it has been carved out of the concrete, is lined with timber slats. These accentuate the angled facets while offering a warm contrast to the raw concrete exterior.

"To announce its dual role as a new gateway into the city, the design uses the two complementary materials of wood and concrete," said the designers.

"The interplay between specific material properties creates contrasting atmospheres for the car drivers rushing by below and the pedestrians crossing the heart of the bridge above."

The bridge was completed in 2012, four years after the major expansion of the La Sallaz station. The metro station now links up with the bridge's entrance.

On the forest side, the pathway leads down to the ground by spiralling around the grass mound.

Photography is by Roger Frei, unless specified otherwise.

Project credits:

Client: City of Lausanne
Team 2b: PH Béboux, S Bender, T Borges, T Auffret-Postel, M Buxton, G Warnking, G Garcier
Construction management: Monod-Piguet + 2b
Structural engineer: Monod-Piguet
Landscape architect: Cécile Albana Presset

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