Designed by Albertin Architekten, Neubau Casa Depuoz is a residential home for people with disabilities located in Sedrun, within the municipality of Tujetsch in the canton of Grisons, Switzerland. The project provides a protected and self-determined living environment for twelve adults with cognitive impairments. Located in the heart of the village, the building strengthens inclusion through its central location and the design of the outdoor space.
The Casa Depuoz association is committed to enabling people with disabilities to lead self-determined lives and to promoting their participation in social life. It also accompanies and supports children, young people, and families in managing challenging life situations.
Arrival and public realm
The entrance is located where paths intersect between the school, the train station, and the village centre. An open square with a wooden fountain and a mature sycamore maple in front of the building form a meeting point for residents, visitors, schoolchildren, and village inhabitants.
Organisation of the building
The home’s spatial concept distinguishes between public, semi-public, and private areas. Publicly accessible spaces are located on the ground floor. These include a common room that can also be rented externally when required, as well as secondary functional spaces such as cellar and storage rooms.
The main circulation is organised around a concrete stair core complemented by a lift. The building is oriented along a north–south axis and opens views towards the valley.
Living spaces and spatial organisation
To ensure equal spatial distribution and living conditions for all three living groups, each group was assigned a floor of identical size and structure. Every floor includes a staff room that supports the organisation of daily activities and the supervision of residents. A shared living and dining area with an adjacent kitchen is located on the sunny southern side of the building and forms the spatial centre of each living group. Next to this space is a winter garden, an unheated area that is warmed through passive solar gain, allowing it to be used in summer months as well as during transitional and winter months.
An open partition wall structures the group space and mediates between the shared areas and the residents’ rooms located to the rear. It creates visual connections between the living area and the corridor, brings daylight into the entrance area and the adjacent hallway, and supports orientation within the floor.
The residents’ rooms are arranged in the quieter part of the building and are oriented either to the east or the west. Separate from these rooms is the zone containing the bathrooms. The compact arrangement of rooms and bathrooms forms a protected retreat area that is connected to the communal spaces through the circulation areas. Circulation accommodates both vertical and horizontal distribution and also integrates service spaces for the internal operation of the building. Bathrooms and kitchens are stacked vertically across all floors, enabling efficient routing of building services.
On each floor, the corridor ends in a projecting bay window that extends from the facade and is constructed entirely from wood. This space provides residents with a place to withdraw outside the private rooms and communal areas and offers views towards the mountains to the north. The bay window also articulates the northern facade and creates a relationship between the different sides of the building.
Material strategy and construction
The building was erected using prefabricated timber construction made from regional sawn wood. Walls and ceilings consist of locally sourced timber, shortening transport distances and supporting local craftsmanship. The use of renewable, CO2-storing materials improves the ecological balance of the building.
Concrete was deliberately minimised during the planning process in order to reduce embodied energy and CO2 emissions. There is no basement in the building, significantly reducing material consumption. Concrete is used only where it is structurally and functionally necessary, for example, in the central circulation core.
Rammed earth floors combine a mixture of clay, silt, and stone conglomerate. Strength is achieved through the compaction of these natural components without the addition of cement or chemical binders. A final sealing layer of wax emulsion and carnauba hard wax provides dirt-repellent and water-repellent properties.
The facade of the Casa Depuoz building is entirely clad with regional larch shingles produced by Bisquolm-Dach, a family-run company in the Surselva region of Graubünden. Shingle production takes place largely through traditional handcraft supported by a small number of machines. For this project, approximately 70,000 shingles were fixed by hand using around 150,000 nails. Regional resources are used, reducing transport distances and environmental impact. At the end of the material’s life cycle, no hazardous waste is produced.
Sustainability was not only approached through material selection and construction methods. The project also prioritised the involvement of local trades and companies. Short transport distances, regional value creation, and the support of local businesses were shared priorities for both the client and the design team. The region has a strong network of specialised companies, many of which work with regional resources. Their involvement helped establish a local ecological and economic cycle that extends beyond the individual building.
Carpentry details
The subdivision of the windows references the traditional building methods of the region while being expressed in a contemporary form.
The parapet height follows the structure of historical facades and allows practical use. The pattern of the protective railing refers to the ornaments and decorative elements of earlier building traditions. The facade design is characterised by horizontal timber members while fulfilling fire protection requirements and giving the building a clear scale. The front part of the ground floor is distinguished from the upper floors through a change in structure, expressing the different interior uses on the exterior. The winter garden is also differentiated from the rest of the facade through a structural variation.
During the design process, care was taken to avoid putty joints and metal flashing connections.
Energy strategy and environmental performance
The project reflects an emphasis on responsible construction and operation. Regionally available materials were prioritised and the use of prefabricated products was deliberately limited in order to reduce the consumption of non-renewable energy.
A roof-integrated photovoltaic system together with a battery storage system maximises the building’s use of self-generated renewable energy. The home is also connected to the Sedrun anergy network, a low-temperature energy network operating in combination with a heat pump and geothermal probes as the heat source. The system provides an annual energy output of approximately 48,000 kWh.
The Swiss sustainability guideline SIA 390/1 describes how a building should be planned, constructed, and operated over its entire life cycle in order to ensure functionality, quality, and cost control. During both construction and operation, the building performs better than the limits defined by SIA 390/1.
