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In an effort to escape from the conventions of city life, Heidi and Peter Wenger reached great heights – their country house stands in the Alps, towering two thousand meters above sea level. Ringing mountain air, rocky ledges overgrown with trees in some places, and around – not a single living soul … Can you imagine a better place for a romantic retreat? However, in this union of two hearts, there was a place for a third participant – modern architecture.
Heidi and Peter are engaged in the development of modular wooden structures and, starting to build their own home, they simply could not do without experiments: “We wanted the house to be akin to nature, experiencing the change of seasons with it.” The Wengers are not the first to think about fusing architecture with the landscape. The main ways to solve this problem are known: biomorphism, an abundance of windows (to let nature into the house), the use of environmentally friendly materials and reliance on local architectural traditions. The peculiarity of this project is that it involved all four techniques at once.
The prototype of the dwelling was the spruce that surrounded the site chosen for construction. Their crowns suggested the ideal shape of the house – an isosceles triangle. This figure is light and graceful. But, alas, beauty is not always practical: triangular structures lack rigidity. They are often used for all sorts of temporary shelters (camping tents, wigwams, etc.), but they are considered not entirely suitable for the construction of more solid dwellings. So the main task was to make the building, which resembles a fragile hut, durable and frost-resistant. For this, it provided three levels of protection.
Level one: get off the ground
The house rests on five wooden “trestles” installed parallel to each other. They, in turn, rest on a stone base anchored in the ground. This “elevated” structure conveys the dynamics of rocky terrain, visually lightens the building (it seems to float in the air), makes it more stable and promotes thermal insulation. The entrance to the house is raised above ground level, so even after the heaviest snowfalls, the door does not have to be dug out from under the snowdrifts.
Level two: the law of the sandwich
In full accordance with the architectural traditions of this mountainous area, the roof of the cottage is covered with spruce shingles. This gives the impression that we have before us the most ordinary rural house, deeply sunk in the snow. In fact, the roof covers the house from head to toe, which makes the building look like a large attic from the inside. The only difference is that there are no “dead zones” left here – thanks to the steep slopes, the interior space is fully utilized. And a thick layer of heat-insulating sandwich panels, laid on the inside of the roof, makes the house livable all year round.
Level three: set sail
The facades of the building are facing east and west and are huge windows with triangular sashes. The house is visible through and through, and the picturesque Rhone Valley becomes part of the interior. The trouble is that glass poorly retains heat, which is already scarce in the house – only a stove-stove warms it. But the Wengers came up with a clever move: the windows can be closed with triangular wooden shutters, which do not leave the piercing winter winds the slightest chance. In fine weather, the shutters also do not stand idle – with the help of a system of ropes and pulleys *, they are folded back onto the supports installed under the windows, turning into terraces. Heidi and Peter spied this idea from sailors – in the same way sails are lowered and raised on yachts.
To be continued
The unusual appearance of the cottage is reflected in its interior. “Traditional furniture would transform the house into a better-designed attic room,” says Peter. The standard rectangular kitchen threatened to partition the room across, and this did not suit the Vengers: they abandoned zoning in order to make the house more spacious. As a result, Peter himself designed a compact kitchen-bowl and other items needed in the household. There is not much furniture in the house, but no decorations at all. This is also a conscious choice of the owners: “When nature knocks on the house in all its splendor, it is foolish to embellish reality with decorative means.”