SLOPING SITE

Designing buildings on a sloping site is always an interesting challenge.

We can find many positive features in a project located in a slanted area of the ground, but at the same time we have to solve some other contraints: the steep of the land, the best sight, the sun exposition.

For example, on one hand we have a side of the building with a stunning view, maybe on the valley, but on the other hand we have a side in contact with soil, that makes difficult natural lighting and ventilation.

We think that the best way to approach this kind of project, taking advantage from the peculiarities of the place, is to follow the topography of the site.

Here you can find our sloping site architectures: every project is different than the others because of the shape of the ground.

Four terraced houses in Sierre

In this project the shape of the building shows the connection between landscape and architecture: the plans follow the sloping ground, generating an unusual volume whose different gable roofs are inspired by swiss mountains.

We faced the difficulty to integrate the volume with the hill using shifting levels, that create big terraces for the living rooms.

At the ground floor there is a private car park and the main entrance. Here you can take an elevator or walk down the stairs to the living room, which is designed as a big open space with a beautiful view on the terraces. On this level there are also a small bathroom and a bedroom, while the other bedrooms are located in the lower part of the building.

Another interesting feature of this project are the patios on the opposite side of the terraces. This is a smart way to create an additional view for the two central apartments, which don’t have a lateral facing as the others.This solution allows to bring more light to the living room, giving also the possibility to place a small tree.

We could say that this project create an interaction with the landscape, taking advantage from the topography and proposing an interesting reinterpretation of the traditional terraces houses.

Four houses in Sierre

Another sloping ground, another challenge.

The aim of this project was to find a way to have 4 different private houses in a straight inclined ground. The house must have had: living room with multiple facings, big terraces, private car parks, the highest privacy quality for the owners and a comfortable access with an elevator. Achieving this goal, with a sloping ground, was not an easy work.

To have multiple facings, we started thinking about “L” shape houses, taking care of their position along the sloping site. Once we defined the shapes of the apartments, we studied an interesting composition, designing patios and terraces. These elements became one of the most important features of the building, influencing all the interior design. In addition they have big vases with blooming shrubs and a Jacuzzi. All the flats are framed in connected volumes: for example, the first floor terraces correspond to the rooftop of the ground floor apartment.

In both the project proposed we tried to create an architecture that belongs to the landscape, avoiding a drastic action but defining new rules able to connect the human scale to the environment.