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House of 2 Verandahs on Lake Zurich

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Two gigantic square holes in concrete pour light into this interesting house on Lake Zurich from Gus Wüstemann.

This is a refreshingly original space that seems to suggest that the clients, a young family from South Africa, were wide open to interesting possibilities.

They did not want the typical solution of a house at the top of its section with just a garden below.

So the architect designed a double viewing platform, at the top and at the bottom of the garden, with the garden between.

The broad stair platforms connecting the two creates its own ceremonial promenade into the view of the lake.

The main house, at the top, is primarily concrete. It even has, amazingly, a sloped concrete roof.

At the bottom of the garden, the second “verandah”, a pool house, is primarily wood.

The concrete house at the top has a second pool off its verandah.

We recently covered an even more original and interesting work on Lake Zurich by Wüstemann: A Serious Work of Art to Live in.

This curious house has a sensibility that is ponderous and looming, but well secured.

Serious plate glass and travertine almost suggests the vault of a bank.

These are extremely weighty materials – concrete and stone – to form the interiors.

Where wood is used, it is in great hunks, that have an equal density and weight as all the the concrete and stone.

At the bottom of the garden, overlooking the more typical Swiss rooftops below, is the second verandah platform.

Down here, a lap pool promotes the healthy body.

But here, the weighty material seems to be air.

Even the voids in this architecture are big and bold and weighty.