Swisshouse XXXII Rossa

Swisshouse XXXII Rossa
© Alexandre Zveiger

SWISSHOUSE XXXII ROSSA

Daniel Buren

ARCHITECTS
Daniel Buren

LOCATION
Rossa, Switzerland

CATEGORY
Houses

AREA
300.0 m2

PROJECT YEAR
2017

PHOTOGRPAHS
Alexandre Zveiger

ARTIST
Daniel Buren

IN COLLABORATION WITH
Mario Cristiani, Galleria Continua

MANUFACTURERS
Alias, La Deca Cucine Sagl

ARTIST
Daniel Buren

GALLERY
Galleria Continua, Mario Cristiani

OTHER IN SITU WORKS BY ARTISTS
Miki Tallone, Flavio Paolucci, Adoka Niitsu

IN COLLABORATION WITH
Galleria Continua, Mario Cristiani

TEAM
Michele Alberio, Aileen Forbes-Munnelly

OTHER IN SITU WORKS BY ARTISTS
Miki Tallone, Flavio Paolucci, Adoka Niitsu

LEAD ARCHITECTS
Davide Macullo

Swiss House Rossa represents the constant commitment to build with respect for the places we inhabit and to make every effort in helping our understanding of civilisation.

Swisshouse XXXII Rossa
© Alexandre Zveiger
Swisshouse XXXII Rossa
© Alexandre Zveiger

This is an opera that lies on the cusp between art and architecture, a living sculpture.

Alongside its primary role in protecting man from the elements, it is an architecture that needs art to complete it.

Swisshouse XXXII Rossa
© Alexandre Zveiger
Swisshouse XXXII Rossa
© Alexandre Zveiger

The Calanca valley, when you go there, you forget the things that are known to you.

In reality, the journey there is short, but it is a trip of a lifetime. Once inside, the valley closes behind you, and beyond opens the door to your dreams.

Rocky walls, forests, undulating soft fields; the ceaseless work of centuries of men and women; it warms us.

Swisshouse XXXII Rossa
© Alexandre Zveiger
Swisshouse XXXII Rossa
© Alexandre Zveiger

The rocks tell us the story of the birth of the earth and how much it has had to move to give us this blessed place.

Rossa is a place of memory where civilisation comes from simplicity.

Our task is to continue this art of love for this land through humble but enduring gestures.

Swisshouse XXXII Rossa
© Alexandre Zveiger
Swisshouse XXXII Rossa
© Alexandre Zveiger
Swisshouse XXXII Rossa
© Alexandre Zveiger

This village in the Swiss Alps at an altitude of 1100 meters, lies almost at the end of the valley, where the powerful force of nature expresses itself, its presence revealing to us our measure in the world. Expresses itself, its presence revealing to us our measure in the world.

Building in this context means taking cue from the signs of the past in their essence, following the peace of a place that catalyses energies difficult to describe.

Nothing here is new. This physical and spiritual place still resists commoditisation and each object placed in it is consumed and amalgamated with history and nature.

Swisshouse XXXII Rossa
© Alexandre Zveiger
Swisshouse XXXII Rossa
© Alexandre Zveiger

Swiss House is placed spatially along a line of volumes of patrician houses that form an agglomeration around the village church.

The new volume emphasises this axis both physically and conceptually.

The cross in vertical projection, the rounding of the edges and the simple torsion of the roof make it dynamic and reinterprets the archetype of the house.

Just like the typical house as designed by children: two vertical lines, two diagonal line for the roof, holes for letting in light. This is the same thing, but completely different.

Swisshouse XXXII Rossa
© Alexandre Zveiger
Swisshouse XXXII Rossa
© Alexandre Zveiger

It is the archetype re-invented to show that the reasons for building are inventive and inexhaustible and that buildings are our public art.

Just as our surrounding nature is not always the same, but is in constant flux, changing and taking on new meanings depending on how we observe it.

It is an enclosure that defines a dynamic space. The points of view and the light penetrations work on the perception of time, notably from the absence of the instantaneous speed of the sliding images we have grown used to.

It is an unbroken line of emotions. 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.

Swisshouse XXXII Rossa
© Alexandre Zveiger


Swisshouse XXXII Rossa
Location plan
Swisshouse XXXII Rossa
Ground floor plan
Swisshouse XXXII Rossa
First floor plan
Swisshouse XXXII Rossa
Roof plan


Swisshouse XXXII Rossa
Ground floor Mezzanine
Swisshouse XXXII Rossa
Basement floor plan
Swisshouse XXXII Rossa
First floor Mezzanine


Swisshouse XXXII Rossa
North facade
Swisshouse XXXII Rossa
South facade
Swisshouse XXXII Rossa
East facade
Swisshouse XXXII Rossa
West facade
Swisshouse XXXII Rossa
Section