Swiss assurance: this large-scale housing complex reinvigorates a dull building type.The challenges of large-scale public housing still tend to confound con·found tr.v. con·found·ed, con·found·ing, con·founds 1. To cause to become confused or perplexed. See Synonyms at puzzle. 2. most architects, so it was encouraging to see this assured example from young Swiss practice Pool Architekten. Compared with most of the projects shown here it represents a sizeable commission (for over 100 apartments), and demonstrates the skills of designing and building on a large scale, jurors were impressed by the scheme's confident execution, if perhaps not so entranced by its quintessentially Swiss rigour rig·our n. Chiefly British Variant of rigor. rigour or US rigor Noun 1. . [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Commissioned for a local housing cooperative A housing cooperative is a legal entity - usually a corporation - that owns real estate; one or more residential buildings. Each shareholder in the legal entity is granted the right to occupy one housing unit, sometimes subject to an occupancy agreement, which is similar to a lease. , the development lies on the edge of Zurich, where the suburbs thin and give way to rolling countryside. The site slopes eastwards down from Leimbachstrasse to the river Sihl and forest beyond. To exploit light and views, the two blocks are placed along the west and north edges of the site defining a large communal garden A communal garden (often used in the plural as communal gardens) is a normally formal garden for shared use by a number of local residents. The term is especially used in the United Kingdom. The centre of many city squares and crescents (e.g. . Clad in a reptilian skin of greenish grey slate and partly dug into the slope, the blocks have a topographic quality that abstracts the roll and heave of the surrounding hills. Each block consists of three sub-units which are kinked slightly in plan like a derailed train. Angular roof profiles also break up any potential monotony, as do the generous balconies set at regular intervals into slate-clad facades. Deft internal planning juggles and organises a range of apartment types. Each sub-block contains three to four flats per floor, arranged around a central communal stairwell stair·well n. A vertical shaft around which a staircase has been built. stairwell Noun a vertical shaft in a building that contains a staircase Noun 1. . Apartments vary in size from one to four bedrooms, with living rooms strategically placed to take advantage of views. A quarter of the apartments are maisonettes, which interlink INTERLINK - A commercial product comprising hardware and software for file transfer between IBM and VAX computers. and overlap the standard flats, introducing an element of spatial diversity to what could, on paper, be quite a monotonous and repetitive building type. All flats have access to external space in the form of balconies (enclosed by elegantly detailed wire mesh wire mesh, wire netting n → tela metálica balustrades) or roof terraces. As might be expected in this part of the world, the quality of construction and workmanship was painstaking, adding to the project's overall sense of dignity and decency. C. S. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] |
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