Marte.Marte Architekten

The long approach road leads high up above the Rhine valley. At the end of a small road used only by ramblers and a few locals stands a series of holiday homes from different periods. At the very top, on the crest of the hill, is a small building with a pitched roof, positioned at the edge of a wood. The way into the house leads around the building, the entrance is at the rear. This building developed from a wish to look. The client decided on this exposed position with its wonderful panoramic views on almost all sides, and an existing holiday home was completely rebuilt. By positioning four large areas of glazing the architects have made four sections of pictures, four views in the interior. Stefan Marte speaks of these openings as lenses that are fitted with three different shutter mechanisms. These are: full-height sliding elements that can close up the house completely, textile roller blinds and, finally, opening window casements.

The structure of the house has four rooms open to each other. Each room has a closed wall and a window element, niches of different depths screen off the large openings, making them appear to withdraw. The rotation of this motif in all four directions lends the house a magical presence and something solid. lt signalises that the building is at rest within itself and that the positioning of the rooms behind serves to finely differentiate the four sides.

The entrance and a kitchen with a view of the mountains above the “Laterns-Valley” face south. The entire sliding front can be opened to allow the breakfast area to be expanded outdoors on a 1,5 metre wide concrete plinth. The east-facing library is narrowed by a small staircase element leading down to the basement and up to the first floor. Here, as in the north-facing dining area with a view of Lake Constance in the distance, a window element springs inwards with its depth increasing towards the west-facing living area to become a true loggia. This motif is continued in the recessed strip windows on the upper floor providing storage space for the bedrooms under a broad window sill. Free standing, 2,1 metre high wall elements with glass connecting pieces separate the roof space into three rooms, two closets and a bathroom. The concrete core around the chimney contrasts with the matt, oiled larch veneer used throughout which is refined in the bathroom to create a ship gloss finish, and points vertically by means of a glass band above the central route area, along the ridge. The meticulous detailing produces monolithic surfaces of larch, glass and concrete that almost completely conceal their construction and the thickness of the material employed. What remains are pure form and a precise serie of proportions that orchestrale the surface with sensus and gestus. As in the boathouse, prefabricated elements were placed on a concrete base. The choice of facade surfaces creating large flat areas, in one case in aluminium, here in larch, react in both cases very specifically to the site. The form and the proportioning are not tied to materials. In fact they make new demands on the materials at each edge and each joint The boathouse is not built of aluminium nor is the holiday home made of timber. These are surfaces that make a contribution to creating a perfect polyphony of a strictly topological architecture.

A text of Robert Fabach for the austrian magazine “architektur aktuell”