This project meant to design a loft in an existing attic of the house Wüstemann, Germaniastrasse 6, at the Zurich berg, with a fantastic view over the lake of Zurich to the south, the town to the west and the forest to the east.
First the roof was converted into a volume by materializing the floor the same way like the ceiling. Then we inserted a new sculpture in the form of a hammer into the old space. The dimensions of the hammer were the result of the given building laws and the demand of the design. The existing wooden structure suddenly lost touch with its context, becoming a free composition in the space, a fragment of the old situation. As a continuation of the flow of the stair case, we created a conceptual wave of water which leads to the lake of Zurich, cutting a big opening into the roof volume. Out of this active wave (black and shiny surface) there are sculptures growing out on the way, icons that become kitchen, stairs and toilet.
The hammer we understand as an urban sculpture inside the roof volume, which inhabits all programs like office, balcony, study, bed niche, bath and walk in wardrobe. Instead of creating specific programmatic areas or objects, the perception of this room is always in relation with the hammer, the wave and the roof volume.
By dismantling the hammer different situations can occur:
The flat is a loft or the bedroom can be separated (the sleeping niche is the only cubic space in the flat, carved out of the hammer).
The bath can be an open space in the bedroom or a bathroom can be created by sliding a part of the hammer. The spatial shape of the sleeping area is the result of the interference of the hammer and the roof volume, leaving us in a room similar to a gothic cathedral.
The handle of the hammer shoots out of the roof volume into the sky, slowly dissolving into the horizon by translucent light up sides and a totally transparent front, generating a balcony with an incredible view over the city.
The orientation in this space is always in reference of the old volume and the new hammer. There are no ‘walls’, there is a ‘beside’, ‘between’ or inside the hammer.
In the living area there was the structure of the existing tower cutting into the room, which we mantled in scobalit (a translucent material) and light it up as the new and spacey interpretation of that jugendstil element. This light sculpture replaces the classical fireplace as an attractor and mediator.
