Relaxing and enjoying the mountainous landscape through a magnificent lens…while having a cup of coffee or dinner with family and friends. That´s Passivhaus in the district of Mostelberg, Switzerland. This house stands at 1,100 meters above sea level, in a site that presents a very slight dip.
The building regulations only allowed a two-story structure, so the answer to these limitations was to extend the program for this house horizontally. And guess what? This particular option gave Passivhaus its major tone and formal shape, resulting in the characteristic projections that contain living and dining room, entrance courtyard and terrace.
The living area is raised above the ground and rests over an unheated concrete base, which accommodates the garage and cellar spaces. All living areas assume the form of a suspended dark box, in balance with the site´s topography.
In fact, the site seems to have inspired the arrangement of the program at many varying levels and enabled pragmatic solutions. An outside staircase gives access to the entrance courtyard; private spaces (single room with toilet, a suite bed room and also a little toilet) stand at the entrance level; social spaces (living room, dining room with kitchen kit) are placed half-level above the entrance while a mezzanine space stands at the top of the private spaces.
Inside, a silver coated plaster is combined with larch wooden panels, while the exterior is a darkly varnished wooden clad that involves all the suspended structure, which seems to appear in its form as a single roof. By the look of it, nothing can disturb a quiet time of comfortably enjoying these marvelous views…
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