Open landscape and spatial narrowness are discussed in the design as apparent opposites. The organization as well as the geometry of the building derive from a precise interpretation of these two qualities. The house high room, facing the landscape, is opposed by a flat room facing the slope. The connecting part of all rooms is a supporting skeleton, created here in concrete: the image of a historical "Hochstud" (a traditional swiss timber frame construction method)strengthens the disposition of the opposing volumes.
The house focuses on the images of the agricultural landscape with its simple houses and large barns.Constructions in which a wooden post raises the ridge beam over several storeysto create a disproportionately large roof (the "Hochstud")are common in the Baselbiet Barns. The central pillar is supported by lateral cantilevers, whereby the beam framework enables building-high rooms as well as lower storage rooms. The room partitions for hayloft, stable ceiling and partitions are inserted as a filling in the timbering and yet the dimensions of the barn remain legible.
Similar to this construction, House H. was madewith a focus on the interior: the visible beams are exaggerated in their importance and atypically materialized in concrete. They divide the house into two floors with a total of twelve room zones, which are used differently. Sliding walls partially run between the beams, opening up the rooms and allowing multi-layered covers. The rustic materiality of the concrete beam contrasts with the fine surface of the white wall fillings, made of plaster. At the top, an inner pitched roof stretches over the two concrete constructions.
The building land of the family home Helfenstein-Ammann is located below the cemetery.
On one side, the terrain drops steeply, while it drains gently into the landscape on the other side.Left and right, two topographically unrelated homes from the 1980s limit the plot. However, the house is based on the mountain-side narrowness and the valley-side openness of the property: an exterior space, enclosed by the ground, towards the slope and a two storey interior space towards the side of the landscape.Laterally, the neighborhood is completely hidden by the structural unity. This will maintain the dream of an idealized and intact landscape. The basic form of the house is formed by a trapeze.
Opened to the landscape, the hillside volumehouses various rooms on the lower floor. The back rooms are embedded in the hill while the zone which is connected to the landscape spans an airspace with the upper floor.The rooms on the upper floor convey a gallery-like appearance towards the airspace.There is a rectangular, fenced-in garden zone against the slope which resembles the floor plan of the house in its dimensions.
