Valerio Olgiati's House in Laax, Switzerland, completed in 2016, stands as a striking intervention in the tranquil Swiss alpine landscape, where architectural purity meets contextual duality.
Situated on a narrow 90-meter-long lot, this single-family home confronts two distinct zones: the village and the agricultural landscape. Olgiati’s design not only acknowledges this dichotomy but amplifies it, resulting in a house that is both rooted in its environment and audaciously detached from it.
The residence is divided into two volumes: the “city house” and the “country house,” each responding to its respective setting. The city house, located at the historical village limit, asserts its presence with a clear, unadorned facade, establishing a dialogue with the public space it faces. This volume houses the children's and guest rooms, oriented towards the village, creating a subtle nod to community life. In contrast, the country house, nestled in the agricultural zone, presents a solid, inward-facing mass that opens up to the surrounding landscape, offering a more intimate, contemplative retreat.
What binds these contrasting worlds is an underground hall, a hidden realm where the family's daily life unfolds. This subterranean connection, illuminated by strategically placed skylights, blurs the boundaries between interior and exterior, creating a series of interconnected niches that evoke the intimacy of caves. The 90-meter-long corridor that links the two volumes serves as the house's spine, a linear journey through the home’s spatial narrative.
The house's white in-situ concrete surfaces, both inside and out, emphasize its monolithic presence, while tilting windows subtly punctuate the exterior, maintaining the purity of its form. Olgiati’s House in Laax offers an unexpected grandeur—a singular architectural expression that stands in stark contrast to the fragmented vernacular of the surrounding village, challenging the viewer to mentally reconcile its disjointed yet harmonious parts.
