Luxurious House of Lake Biel, Switzerland

Award-winning Biel-based design studio bauzeit architekten has designed the House of Lake Biel. Completed in 2009, this contemporary property was built with an emphasis on the relationship between the property and its picturesque surroundings.

According to the architects: “Placed on a gentle slope on the southern shore of Lake Biel, the new edification was built on the old romantic garden of a 19th century villa that no longer exists. The remaining parts of it, an ancient cave, a pond and the vegetation, were kept and form part of the new project.

“The contemporary Swiss property is organised on three levels, each floor having a different spatial character, housing three specific program areas:

“On the ground floor you can find the living room and kitchen with direct contact with the outside; a total transparency, in line with the slope, is guaranteed with very large windows.

“To the east, a small forest and a mirror of water created from a natural source, to the west the view opens onto the garden with its exuberant vegetation and the lake as background.

“On the first floor of the contemporary Switzerland property a large area is modulated by two sculptural volumes containing two bathrooms. Through a curtain system the space is built variable creating a sleeping area and two zones for work and meditation.

“If the ground floor is characterised by the use of exposed concrete and a big transparency, this floor is entirely made of wood (ceiling, floor and walls) and suggests instead a more privacy vis-à-vis the outside.

“The environment is omnipresent but ‘filtered’ through the wooden lattice which, at the same time contains the unwanted attention from the outside.

“On the lower floor the secondary areas, as cellar, laundry, heating, and a workshop. If the two upper floors are characterised rather by the monochrome and the use of materials in their natural state, these floor is characterised by a strong use of colour, floors, walls and ceilings combining various colours.

“The vertical movement guaranteed by the staircase, is the passage through three distinct worlds, with no continuity.”

Images courtesy of Yves André.

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