Studio House

摘要

In a suburban area of the city of Zurich, a slope of high-end residences enjoying amazing lake views stops just before the railway tracks. From a former carpentry activity resulted an artificial topography which was a challenge for the project of a small multi-family apartment house. The iconic figure in plan allows each apartment to appreciate different vistas. On the one hand, it defines a clear entrance to the plot opposite the railway bridge; on the other hand, it encloses a small garden courtyard protected from the noise. Two floors, each of them hosting two apartments, sit on a base with garages and storage space. Rather than aiming at ideal villa architecture, this disadvantaged situation and its origins became the source of inspiration. Looking for an anonymous "architecture without architects" which celebrates its pure subservience, Emanuel Christ and Christoph Gantenbein meticulously surveyed a strip of anonymous factories and workshops from the 1950s to the 1970s along the railway line from Zurich to Basel. Like a collage, the house subtly quotes typical industrial attributes while blurring the chronology of the different elements. The staircase occupies one corner of the square volume, while the other part of the building innocently hooks up to it, pretending to be a later addition. The horizontal aluminium frame ribbon windows with applied blind casing could be hiding a clock factory, and contrast with the completely hermetic chalk-plastered walled ground floor composed of garages and storage space. No balconies are provided, being replaced by an outside concrete staircase leading to the garden, or an access to the roof terrace via a factory-like staircase tower. The robust concrete pillar structure is filled with flexible lightweight walls, hiding ad hoc bathrooms and standing on industrial asphalt floor. This palette of grey tones is whispering: "Ceci n'est pas une fabrique" (this is not a factory).