Herzog & de Meuron
Project
1995

The plot is situated in a suburb of Stuttgart next to a park with tall, ancient oak trees. Most of the buildings in the neighbourhood are one or two stories high with gable or hip roofs, typical of the post-war architecture in so many suburbs of central Europe.

The client wanted a house with two apartments for his family and a floor of offices for the administration of his extensive collection of contemporary art. These needs are all united under one roof without being individually visible from the outside. The house has a unified, homogeneous form, like a kind of prototype. With its traditional roof and simple cubic shape it fits seamlessly into the typology of the neighbourhood. In addition, the wooden cladding conveys a pleasant mood, an atmosphere of living in the familiar world of the countryside.

At the same time this existing image is disrupted and called into question: the new house shows no juncture between facade and roof; and no division is made between the area of the roof and the exterior walls. The interior walls of the stairwell are also constructed of the same uniformly heavy beams. Daylight penetrates dimly through the cracks between the oak ties. From outside, the house looks heavy and compact, as if it had been carved out of one solid wooden block, like a model or a medieval shrine. The longer one looks at it, the more it deviates in scale and appearance from the neighbouring houses. In fact, it seems closer in spirit to the oak forest on the other side of the street – to the great archaic trees from another world.

Herzog & de Meuron, 1996

134_MO_0008_703_ HS
134_MO_0008_703_ HS
134_SI_950300_501
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134_SI_950300_502
134_SI_950300_502
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134_SI_950300_503
134_MO_0008_500
134_MO_0008_500
134_MO_0008_701_HS
134_MO_0008_701_HS
134_MO_0008_702_HS
134_MO_0008_702_HS

Drawings

134_DR_0006_504_SITE
134_DR_0006_504_SITE
134_DR_000601_500_PLANS
134_DR_000601_500_PLANS
134_DR_0006_506_ELEVATION
134_DR_0006_506_ELEVATION
134_DR_0006_502_ELEVATION
134_DR_0006_502_ELEVATION
134_DR_0006_501_ELEVATION
134_DR_0006_501_ELEVATION
134_DR_0006_503_ELEVATION
134_DR_0006_503_ELEVATION

Team

Bibliography

Gerhard Mack, Herzog & de Meuron: “Herzog & de Meuron 1992-1996. The Complete Works. Volume 3.” Edited by: Gerhard Mack. Chinese ed. Beijing, China Architecture & Building Press, 2010. Vol. No. 3.

Fernando Márquez Cecilia, Richard Levene (Eds.): “El Croquis. Herzog & de Meuron 1981-2000. Between the Face and the Landscape. The Cunning of Cosmetics. Entre el Rostro y el Paisaje. La Astucia de la CosmĂ©tica.” 2nd adv. and rev. ed. Vol. No. 60+84, Madrid, El Croquis, 2005.

“Herzog & de Meuron. Natural History.” Edited by: Philip Ursprung. Exh. Cat. “Herzog & de Meuron. Archaeology of the Mind.” Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montreal. 23 October 2002 – 6 April 2003. 2nd ed. Baden, Lars MĂĽller, 2005.

Nobuyuki Yoshida (Ed.): “Architecture and Urbanism. Herzog & de Meuron 1978-2002.” Tokyo, A+U Publishing Co., Ltd., 02.2002.

Wilfried Wang: “Herzog & de Meuron.” 3rd adv. and rev. ed. Basel / Boston / Berlin, Birkhäuser, 1998. (= Studiopaperback).

Jacques Herzog: “Compacidad. El Objeto Autista. Compactness. The Autistic Object.” In: Manuel Gausa (Ed.). “Quaderns d’Arquitectura i Urbanisme. Forum Internacional 2. Debates Centrales. Main Debates.” Vol. No. 214, Barcelona, Col-legi d’Arquitectes de Catalunya. Association of Catalan Architects, 1997. pp. 50-51.