2010 / Construction of a house for art collector / Port Noir / Geneva / Switzerland
© Adrien Missika © ChristianDupraz Architects
“I'd like a massive house, safe and fragrant like my childhood. I will make you a sheltered house like the ones I love.” It is through an on going conversation between the architect and client that the realisation of this house was achieved. On an exceptional site, along the edge of the centre of Geneva, this white house, with its pure geometry, is a part in itself. If the square plan is the basis for its composition, it surprises through its malleability and functional complexity. The central staircase sets the tone for the vertical distribution; it is the vital object that dispenses all the various rooms in a compositional game close to the Raumplan by Adolf Loos. Through the offset of the plan and the biased position of the ridge, together with the affirmation of two identical pinions, the house offers amazing form variations on the façade. The multiple window frames of varying dimensions situate the house in a contemporary reinterpretation of a certain tradition.