Wehrli house

The initial situation of this project was a villa built in 1929, which was to be converted into an apartment building with three spacious flats. Careful interventions in the architecture preserved the building’s expression despite the conversion and extension measures.
The new extension accommodates two bedrooms with a bathroom on the ground floor and a large, bright eat-in kitchen on the upper level, including a terrace in front of it. The roof was converted into a three-room apartment with a lucarne, offering a view of the lake. The ceilings on the attic level, which are individual, steeply rising pointed domes, give the rooms additional height and create a specific spatial situation.
The existing building has “national romantic” style elements, such as the ornate main entrance, the playfully offset windows and structured, unobtrusive building cubatures, as well as classic modern elements, such as the loggia to the south east, which connects volumetrically to the main building. Like the existing loggia, the new extension also forms a counterpart to the main building. However, the two are connected by sculptural staggering in a vertical direction.
The offset apertures in the northwestern façade open up an area and highlight the building volume despite their dimensions. At the same time, the window divisions establish a relationship with the existing building in terms of their scale. The façade of sand-blasted concrete also has a similar colour and grain to the plaster façade of the original building, combining the two building volumes into a unity.

Direct contract, 2005

Construction
2007