Micro-Cosmos II

Private House, near Zurich, 2005-2007

A place, which seduces us to react cynically. We don’t like what we see. The image suggests one’s own journey through time. A dense row of balconies lines the foreground, while a pleasant landscape fills the background. We come to a site, which remains astonishing, apparently dominated by others.

Can we take this house out of this place? Can a principle be developed, that doesn’t reference the place as we found it, but instead evades this possibility?

With Rousseau’s jungle paintings, we rid ourselves from the backdrop of endlessly multiplied terraces. We slice the new house into three parts and push the pieces apart. We build our own context. Is creating your own neighborhood not the greatest freedom? Isn’t it a privilege to be able to surround yourself with yourself? The three houses stand as an ensemble in various heights around a new center. The place is a self-created ideal situation. In an undertaking like Prince Prosperos’, outside disaster rages while inside the staging governs. Thus, within the constellation of houses, boundaries, crossovers, and connections unfold, which lend the otherwise simple rooms complexity and internal transformations of tapered plasticity. It is a house where one arrives, but does not leave.

GSC House, Conceptual Collage, 2005
GSC House, Conceptual Collage, 2005
Figure Ground Plan
Figure Ground Plan

The place is a self-created ideal situation. Thus, within the constellation of houses, boundaries, crossovers, and connections unfold, which lend the otherwise simple rooms complexity and internal transformations of tapered plasticity.

Micro-Cosmos II

2008
Project
2005
Address

near Wollerau
Switzerland

Client
Private
Realization
2007
2008
Team
Piet Eckert, Wim Eckert with Markus Giera
Collaboration

Construction Management: Oppliger von Gunten, Zurich
Structural Engineer: Walt + Galmarini AG, Zurich
Landscape Architect: Vogt Landschaftsarchitekten AG, Zurich
Mechanical/Plumbing: Rechberger Huustechnik AG, Zurich
Electrical Engineer: IBG Engineering AG, Winterthur
Photographs: Radek Brunecky, Zurich; Jon Naiman, Biel (Model); Dominique Marc Wehrli, La Chaux-de-Fonds