Similar but not so Similar.

My husbands grand parents live in a house like this. Well, not quite. It's not modern or minimalist like this. It's not in Switzerland, it's in Scotland. In fact it's nothing like this house, it's crammed full of chintz and bits and pieces, a grotto that would send any hoarding holiday elf green.

What I'm trying to say is that it's on an insanely steep hillside, like this house renovation by Rahbaran Hurzeler Architekten. This is a family home and a workshop, and the many levels of the building create a clever transition between the public and privet spaces.

The architects had a long list of restraints, including a steep hillside site, strict zoning regulations, as well as the client wishing to preserve as much as possible the qualities of the original home. The architects endeavoured to find the solutions within the proposal in order to entirely fulfil the objectives of the project



The largest decision was to create a 7m-long cantilevered overhang to expand the building while conforming to restrictions. Providing a visual difference from the domestic buildings around it, the form quietly thrusts itself away from the existing home, claiming workable space on a hillside site.



With in the building there is a progression of enveloping and spacious interiors with windows that cleverly structure views of the surrounding hills. Married with the purity of materials and simplicity of forms is a subtle pleasure that really makes me love the modern form.