As an addition to a house on a corner site, the new volume has a visible entrance from the street in order to provide public access to the private marionettes theatre. Accordingly, the new building is thought of as a lightweight box, like a musical instrument, sitting on projecting sleepers and consisting of plywood sheets in a balloon-frame construction that recalls the traditional craftsmanship of Japan. The roof, the main room and the bearing structure are all clearly articulated. Plywood on the inside is also used to form the shutters.
The addition’s relationship to a mature Paulownia tree elicits an embracing gesture in the south façade. Together with the double posts of the central bay and the three-sided enclosure, the reentrant south façade recalls Le Corbusier’s Swiss Pavilion (Cité Universitaire, Paris 1930), while the refined detailing with the larger overhang of the roof and the smaller ledges above the windows are perhaps more reminiscent of Frank Lloyd Wright.
Herzog & de Meuron, 1988
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Plywood House
Bottmingen, Switzerland
Project1984
Realization1985
