” The house is situated at the highest point of the northwards slope of a former arboretum, with a total area of 1.57 ha. Both the location and size of the building were essentially formed by the structure of the original weekend house (part of the foundation of which was used for the new house) and the close proximity of a mature oak and fir tree.
The wish of the investor was to create an economical residence with light and spacious rooms, closely linked to the natural surroundings.
The building is designed on three levels – an open residential ground floor, an enclosed bedroom floor, and a rooftop terrace. In its conception, the ground floor forms a single space with a central core, into which the kitchen facilities, technical area, storage spaces, staircase and fireplace are all integrated. By using movable walls, the residential area and kitchen can be separated from the southern corridor section used as a winter garden. Thanks to the positioning of the core, in turn, the outer walls can open onto a panoramic view of the surrounding outdoors. The upper floor, by contrast, is the quiet and enclosed level of the house. In it, we find a study, the bedrooms of the parents and children, and a large bath. The bedrooms have narrow windows giving onto the garden; the large window above the bathtub frames a view into the tops of the trees. From the bedroom, a “secret” staircase leads along the façade to the rooftop terrace, which provides a pleasant situation for sitting and relaxing under the open sky.
The essential construction is formed by a wooden frame, allowing the exterior walls to be thinner and shortening the construction time. In the upper floor, the exterior walls are reinforced OSB slabs, which are part of the composition of the wall and simultaneously fulfil the function of vapour barriers. On the ground floor, the façade is formed from full-length sheets of insulating glass, anchored into the load-bearing pillars of the frame, along with small bottom-hung windows for ventilation and long French windows. The exterior cladding of the façade in the upper floor is of unplanned boards treated with protective varnish.”
