Brauen/Mathys House, CH-Nidau
The single-family home is located at the end of a neighborhood of row houses and terraced homes, with an unobstructed view of the agricultural zone bordering it to the south. It is a single-story, pavilion-style residence on the edge of a 1960s patio-style neighborhood. The lot marks the northwestern boundary of the development and forms the transition to a conventional, two-story residential structure. A thirty-year-old vacant lot is filled by a new residential building. Its form rises from a narrowing section and opens up toward the field. The building adapts to the lot and its building setbacks, responds to its surroundings, and thereby derives its contours and colors.
The floor plan emerges from its interplay with the outdoor space: The ancillary rooms are located in the entrance area, forming a sort of box that is inserted into the main wing.
A wing of the house that houses the utility rooms forms the protective backbone of the home and orients the fully glazed space toward nature. The interior spaces become one with the outdoors: the openness and transparency of the living area engage in a dialogue with the field immediately adjacent to it.
The design concept for the spaces and materials reflects the residents’ open, spacious, and simple way of life. The surfaces of the materials used — most of which have been left in their raw state — give the building its color and vibrancy.
