Schwänberg

Our existing neighbor the “Rutenkaminhaus” is one of the oldest buildings in Switzerland with a history of more than 500 years. In the building lives already a neighbour which moved in later – the “chimney room” which is nowadays a small public exhibition place. We used this typology with the neighbor in between an existing structure in order to introduce a new neighbourhood in Schwänberg. The beginning of Schwänberg was characterised by first settlements facing each other – a non boarder situation. What if the neighbourhood is not characterized by boarders for protection but as an continuous space between you and your neighbor? What would happen if you see the neighbours house as an extension of your existing space? We defined five different buildings in Schwänberg which could function both as a space consuming and space producing urban typology. As plot boarders are often used for infrastructure (streets, fences, plants), we tried to absorbe different elements (garage, fence, wall, stair, tree) in one building to structure and guide the existing village structure.