Peter Märkli - Switzerland
Single-Family House
Hasenbüntstrasse 11, Grabs
1995



In relation to the House Gantenbein in Grabs, the architect Peter Märkli declares, that it stood on its own, in a meadow away from the village when he was designing it. So he decided not to build a house with a garden and its own definite boundaries but a house including all things in itself. The single-family house in grabs was designed as a cube that occupies the centre of the space. At first glance the building appears to be a perfect cube, but in truth the geometry is not precise, since two of the corners are not perpendicular. From the interior it seems the building has no boundaries, giving open views into the expanse of the garden. At the same time the interior is quite private, the windows of the ground floor are set back behind a terrace and are screened with sliding shutters. The terrace has not a consistent width on both sides as a consequence of the irregular geometry. The terrace is a cantilevered extension of the basement ceiling. Although the terrace is elevated only a few centimeters off the ground, this is enough to draw the space of the meadow under the house, giving it a floating appearance. Diagonally accross from the terrace is located the carport with its far cantilevering canopy. This canopy accentuates the dip, resulting from the location below the level of the driveway. The exposed concrete facade is cast in marin ply wood resulting in a smooth almost ironed appearance. The windows emphasize the flatness through the aluminum frames which are arranged outside flush with the facade. In the case of this house, concrete was used for its structural possibilities, since it was the only way to realize this construction. Nearly everything is made of concrete: the projecting canopy, the cantilevered terrace, the external load-bearing walls and the flat roof. According to Peter Märkli, in case of this building form and material require each other absolutely.