colorful swiss house rossa expresses a playfully artful structure in the calanca valley

‘swiss house rossa’ lies among the rocky walls, forests, and undulating soft fields of switzerland’s calanca valley. it represents the constant commitment of davide macullo architects to build with a respect for the places we inhabit. the house, itself a ‘living sculpture,’ is a work of both architecture and of art. macullo worked with french artist daniel buren and mario cristiani of galleria continua to incorporate this artful element into the project. buren’s signature stripes are translated into vertical slats that make up the very structure of the building, rather than acting as simply a surface design. the structure and the art are therefore one and the same.

images courtesy of alexandre zveiger | photos-souvenirs © daniel buren – adagp paris / davide macullo

davide macullo derived the formal qualities of the house from simple, reinvented archetypes: in plan, the cross; and in elevation, the traditional image of a child’s drawing of a house. the vertical extrusion of the cross in plan was manipulated to dynamize the space. each aperture is calibrated and oriented towards selected views of the surrounding landscape. each point is different and every breath of the landscape suggests different things. the volume is constructed entirely in wood with traditional building methods of the region.

‘we involved him [daniel buren] because during our own formative years he taught us the pleasure of synthesis in observing the beauty of nature through his recognizable signs,’ explains davide macullo architects. ‘today we have a permanent work of his in the heart of the swiss alps.’

‘nothing here is new,’ continue the architects. ‘this physical and spiritual place still resists commoditization and each object placed in it is consumed and amalgamated with history and nature. swiss house is placed spatially along a line of volumes of patrician houses that form an agglomeration around the village church. the new volume emphasizes this axis both physically and conceptually.’