A very fine holiday home by AFGH, ch.
This beautiful chalet has been designed by AFGH Architects of Switzerland and it is situated near Scheidegg. The designers have carefully folded all the services and much of the structural clutter away into the concrete basement and foundations which latch this block onto the sloping alpine terrain. By doing this they’ve allowed a beautiful, clean form to be placed onto the hillside on a site which originally supported a run down alpine hut.
The inside of the property looks incredible - the minimalist lines obviously intended to frame the panoramic vistas, not detract. As a means of conveying the dwellers attention to the awe inspiring alpine landscape outside, the restricted palette of plain almost bland interior colours work very well. Similarly, simple specification of fixtures and the use of standard detailing look cool and uncluttered.
The designers have made a really strong choice in the detailing of the windows in the chalet. They are carefully proportioned to make anyone in the house aware that they are not inside the real art of the mountain, it is outwith the shell. Panoramic vistas of the mountains are framed and then interspersed with squared, delicately framed scenes that look as fake as they are real.
This is what AFGH have to say about their project…
The building was arranged on the periphery of the property so that the distance to the neighbouring houses was as large as posssible and so that the option of constructing another building could be left open. The concrete cellar anchors the building in the sloping terrain and houses the entrance area and the technical servicing, on top of which is the wooden volume of the building which appears something like a ship. This floor juts out to a great extent towards the east so that a covered, protected entrance is created.
The concrete chimney of the open fireplace rises like a mast out of the cellar, and together with a concrete wall forms the bracing backbone behind which the two single-flight staircases connect the 3 storeys. On the ground floor is a large living room spread over two different levels and with different ceiling heights. The deliberately low area containing the kitchen in fact creates a spatial feeling like that generated in the low parlours in mountain huts. The 5-meter long fixed-glazed panorama window, which frames the breathtaking view like a picture, nevertheless introduces a contemporary modernity. The polygonal plan form makes a differentiated spatial division possible and gives the open fireplace its particular status at the widest spot in the room.
This is lovely, real design that is (refreshingly) non self-obsessed. Put it on the wish list.
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