2 VERANDAS DESIGN BY GUS WUSTEMANN
2 VERANDAS DESIGN BY GUS WUSTEMANN
This is a house for a young South African family in Erlenbach, just
outside Zurich along the lake. The plot is in a suburban context and therefor
pretty dense with family homes, typical for the area. The site is on a
slope, where on top there are beautiful views to the lake with evening sun
and at the lower part there is a group of smaller family houses.
The clients asked us for a solution for a house that made most of
the big plot, wanting a view, but not end up with a house on top of the
hill and a rest of a garden down below.
PERIPHERY
Our solution for this plot was to occupy the periphery of the site,
with the main house on top of the hill and the pool house at the bottom,
both houses connected through a solid stony promenade: 2 verandas.
By occupying the periphery: there is one veranda at the top, the
promenade is going alongside the eastern boarder of the plot leading to
the south end, there is a park in the middle of the site.
The park can be consumed as nature from all three sides and
therefor there is no ‚left over’ of land. The stony promenade connects
the two verandas, is a site of its own, where you walk or sit and enjoy
the view to the lake or the park. With the promenade, the garden moves up
to the level of the living room and it connects all levels of the house
with the garden.
2 VERANDAS
The main house is a stony, concrete, hammer shaped volume over two
levels, that contains the living rooms. In the upper part is the public
living room for invitations and dining with a beautiful view over the lake
of Zurich. On the ground level is the family lounge with an exterior
patio that can be joined as one room with the living room. All the
windows disappear and the inside and outside patio become one. That patio
connects all bedrooms and is a lounge to sit together privately and watch
a movie.
The circulations in and out of that space are controlled by
concrete volumes at the ceiling that condense the space through mass and
light and slow the circulation.
The two rooms are crossed above each other, at the ground floor
level we pull a wooden curtain around the concrete volume to create the
private sleeping quarters.
The upper living room has a shark fin like shape, so the space is
very high at the back of the space with northern sky lights, and is lower at
the front to frame the view.
MASS WITH NO WINDOWS
The inside and the outside are joined, as we let all the windows
disappear, so there is only the concrete mass left. The inside becomes a
covered outside spacer: Mediterranean feeling in the northern
hemisphere.
The absence of the window is the essential instrument to actually
unite in and outside space; it is the glass itself that reminds us of the
border of in and outside. In many projects nowadays this fact is
neglected or simply ignored and therefor glass is used in an extensive way.
MASS & LIGHT
We chose natural and raw materials like concrete, travertine or
wood. The concrete is formed and communicates with the space through
light gaps that give that extra feeling of finesse to the shear mass of
the concrete. Throughout the whole house indirect lights are giving
directions, and attract the periphery of the spaces rather than the
center. The indirect light is creating the atmosphere.
On the underground floor there is a gym, a movie room and wine
cellar all arranged around the light up masses of the concrete that give
the house a whole different playful area. There is raw concrete and
raw wood AND therefor a lot of texture.
2 Verandas project’s photograph by Bruna Helpling.
B
GUS WUSTEMANN
B
Gus Wustemann is internationally active in the field of
Architecture and Urbanism. He runs practices in Barcelona and Zurich sice 1997.
He obtained a Master Degree at the ETH Zurich and did an exchange
in Ahmedabad India. Prior to this, work experience has led him to places such
as Sydney, New York, Paris and Bombay. He is a member of SIA and COAC.
Gus Wustermann builds program free and open design concepts, which
understand all elements as equal actors of a play and sets the frame of each
concept. Simple materials in a new context and latest construction methods
enable sophisticated architecture with a reasonable economical outlay.
He sees architectural and urban design as an instrument to catalyze
life on all levels of society with no hierarchy of esthetic, moral or material,
through experiment and analysis. Living rooms become outside spaces.
Mediterranean lifestyle find its way into the Northern Hemisphere.
