Villa A.

Housing | Küsnacht

A lux­u­ri­ous vil­la in Küsnacht, whose in­tend­ed de­sign for a fam­i­ly with three chil­dren was con­sid­er­ably com­pressed due to build­ing reg­u­la­tions on cu­ba­ture and build­ing height, but which still proud­ly re­flects the tra­di­tion of for­mer vil­las along the “Gold Coast” of Lake Zurich. It is thus dis­tinct from the con­tem­po­rary blocks of con­crete and glass which claim to be vil­las, but whose ab­stract­ness en­gen­ders a func­tion­al re­stric­tion and thus brings an im­pov­er­ish­ment to the way of life which, es­pe­cial­ly in Switzer­land, brought forth this great vil­la cul­ture. The clas­sic habi­tus, which seems for­eign to con­tem­po­rary eyes, was ac­tu­al­ly the pre­vail­ing con­ven­tion even for the Swiss tra­di­tion of bour­geois house-​build­ing.

An av­enue lined with cher­ry trees leads to the en­trance por­tal on the north side of the vil­la and then one climbs the few steps and cross­es the hall to en­ter the two-​storey liv­ing space and fi­nal­ly reach the colon­nad­ed por­ti­co which pays trib­ute to this unique lo­ca­tion with its views over the lake and moun­tains.

The façade, craft­ed in Ro­man traver­tine with the great­est pos­si­ble pre­ci­sion, is char­ac­terised by the con­trast be­tween Cu­bist uni­ty and tec­ton­ic re­lief, which is de­vel­oped to a del­i­cate play­ful­ness with the per­go­la, main build­ing and guest­house.

PROJECT PARTNER:  HANS KOLLHOFF

INTERIOR DESIGN:  HANS KOLLHOFF

LANDSCAPE DESIGN:  PETER WIRTZ

PHOTOGRAPHY: ?????????????