3D chalet

The house is partly dug into the hillside at ground floor level where it has its entrance and a stair to the first floor. This is an open-plan space in which the kitchen, dining and living areas are arranged around the centrally located staircase. To compensate for the limited space and to capitalize on the fine views, the south-facing facades are glazed.

And then it is the striking wooden facade. Although this makes the cube house something of an odd man out, this is not a building that ignores its context. It is more a question of a very free interpretation of that context. The architects have made no attempt to imitate or abstract the shape of the surrounding chalets. Yet the three-dimensional timber skin is an image that is perfectly in tune with its alpine village setting. Because if you look carefully, you will see that the triangular planes match the pitched roof of the chalets, that the composition of the structure corresponds to the facade structure of the surrounding buildings, and that the rhythm of the timber slats is echoed in the balconies of other chalets and in the wood piles under the lean-to roofs. (Kirsten Hannema)