In this way, nobody can have anything against detached houses: At “Atelier Elli”, the working floor and living levels are stacked on a small residual plot in the middle of the city. The project by Holzer Kobler in Zurich’s Elisabethenstrasse has now been awarded first prize in the “Houses of the Year” competition.
Last week, the “Atelier Elli” project in Zurich was awarded first prize in the “Houses of the Year” competition. The architecture competition is held every year by the German Architecture Museum in Frankfurt am Main, Callwey Verlag and the partners Informationszentrum Beton and Hofquartier.
The Swiss national exhibition Expo.02 at the Jura lakes was an event, not least because of its remarkable scenography – for example because of buildings such as the monolith standing in the water in Murten by Jean Nouvel or the immaterial cloud by Diller + Scofidio. But there were also a number of exhibition projects that intelligently questioned Switzerland’s traditional self-image. In Murten, Barbara Holzer, head of the architecture firm “d-case”, explored the theme of home as a construct with her “Heimatfabrik”. Two years after the national exhibition, in 2004, Barbara Holzer and Tristan Kobler founded the joint office Holzer Kobler Architekturen in Zurich, which is equally active in the field of architecture and exhibition design.
Both partners studied architecture at ETH Zurich, but after graduating they took paths that were rather untypical for Switzerland: Tristan Kobler realized around 60 exhibitions for the Museum für Gestaltung in Zurich in just under ten years, while Barbara Holzer moved to Berlin in 1992 and worked for ten years for Studio Daniel Libeskind, where she was project manager for the Felix Nussbaum House in Osnabrück and the Westside leisure and adventure center in Bern, among others.
Utilizer of residual space
One of her most recent – and at the same time most personal – projects is a structural redensification behind her office in Zurich. This is located not far from Zurich-Wiedikon station on one floor of an office and commercial building designed by architect Otto Glaus and completed in 1957. It stands separately and is separated from the adjoining perimeter block development by a parking lot. An analysis of the situation revealed that part of the open space could be built on, so the architects suggested to the owner that this potential should be exploited: They designed a five-storey residential building adjoining the edge of the block on a plot measuring five by ten meters, which is connected underground to the existing building. They not only acted as designers, but also as tenants: The underground studio space with skylights is used by the office, while Barbara Holzer has moved into the residential building. Keeping the construction costs and therefore the rent low was therefore in the architects’ best interests.
Prefabricated concrete elements guaranteed rapid construction progress and give the house its character. Apart from the entrance on the first floor, the long façade is closed, while the narrow front sides are glazed. An elevator was omitted for reasons of cost and space; the spatial experience is dominated by stairs. Passing the granny apartment on the first floor and the children’s area on the first floor, you reach the architect’s private rooms: the bedroom, living room and kitchen each occupy one floor, and the now external staircase leads up to the roof terrace, which replaces the non-existent garden. Exposed concrete and steel define the shell character of the interior.
Photos: Atelier Brunecky
The exhibition for the “House of the Year” competition can be seen at the DAM until November 26.
