Best Architect 2020

Private house . Cologny This project concerns a metamorphosis of a place described as uninhabitable, simply because it was uninhabited, but inhabited by a land-scape. And it is this very landscape with its own horizon that dictates each intervention. The obvious place to start was to open the site. Open it to the view, to light and air. Open it to space, to the scale of the surrounding land. The transformation is achieved through demolition. Gradually, the walls of the building remains that restricted the space are pulled down and the space is unshackled. All that remains to be done is to maintain and use a regular and well-organised structure. Supported and covered, it is to be completed by blending interior and exterior elements. This villa is mimetic! The parallel line of the raised railing unites with the lake. The horizontal circulation accompanying the lake is like an extended guide into the landscape. The materials covering the surface of each wall are determined by the light playing on them and call on a range of variations combining clay, resin and wood. Wrapped in a continuous glass facade, the different spaces are arranged on a continuous travertine carpet, erasing any boundary between interior and exterior... Thus it is not a glass house but a reflection on the watery mirror of the lake. Is the lake the house?