House with an Eye | Anna Jach

Completion Year: 2023

Gross Built Area (m2/ ft2): 155m2/1668sqft

Project Location: Zurich, Switzerland

Program / Use / Building Function: residential house addition

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Lead Architects: Anna Jach, Studio Anna Jach GmbH

Art Installations: DRZACH&SUCHY, www.drzachsuchy.ch, ZIETA, www.zieta.pl

Lead Architects e-mail: [email protected]

Photographer

Photo Credits:   Alexandre Kapellos

Photographer’s Website: www.alexandrekapellos.com

Photographer’s e-mail: [email protected]

Clients brief: 

- extension of the entry area, new guest's bathroom, two-story library for 500 books with a swing for the youngest child, yoga & meditation room, child's bedroom, rooftop terrace. Total added area of the building extension: 55m2. Total area including existing: 155m2.  Volume 122m3.

Planning constraints: 

- very narrow but high frequented street, reduced parking possibility for the contractors, the client wanted to move back in as soon as possible (short construction time).

Sustainability as the key-aspect of the building construction: 

- massive reduction of the carbon footprint by the usage of local wood and local insulation material (blown-in cellulose). Short transportation ways due to the selection of local contractors and materials. Excavation earth was reused as a rammed-earth sitting bench in the garden. Solar panels on the rooftop + heat pump provide electric energy and hot water. Due to the thickness of the building insulation (26cm, total wall thickness of 40cm) the heating cost was reduced by 50%.

Inside, wooden panels were left without adding an extra render as the final finishing surface, resulting in a natural way of humidity exchange, pleasant room climate and the smell of fresh pine wood. No artificial chemical treatments were used for the internal wall protection, the surfaces were impregnated with natural flax oil combined with 5% of white mineral paint to prevent the wood from getting the yellow stain by the time.

Construction method: 

- prefabricated, sandwich-like, insulated pine wood panels, mounted together on site by 4 people using a mobile crane within 5 hours

- vertical wood planks applied as a finish and protection on the exterior

- groove and tongue connections, reduced amount of screws and bolts

 - wall prefabrication using modern CNC-cut technology in the assembly hall 37 km away from the construction site

Digital art: 

- building facade with a programmed 3d shadow relief: CNC-wave-cut vertical facade planks cast a shadow of an open eye in the morning and a closed eye in the afternoon, giving a "living" effect to the exterior skin of the building and creating an interaction with the surrounding