A wooden house in the snow

A wooden house in the snow.

Wood construction has always been very apropriate in cold and mountainous climates, the consctructive tradition of countries like switzerland or northern European countries has alwaysconnected the use of this material. It's fisical qualities like being an isolating material and it's versatility to form part as much in the structure as the enclosures and finishes make in the wood an ideal material for construction of small edifices.

A wooden house in the snow, construction of houses of wood. A big piece of wood carved to set this house in the mountain.

Schudel's house is found in a mountainous hillside of Feldis, in Suitzerland. The terrain is characterized by a pronounced slope that makes it so that the house has to adapt in sections to different levels.

This is a vacation house, defined overall by it's relation with the scenery and the mountainous surroundings, not in vain the architect has pretended in all moments to potenciate this advantage, introducing big holes that look to frame the vision of the scenery.

This wooden house apears like a blunt volume, like a simple prism of inclined covers, that can give the sensation of lightness or of being a blunt and massive volume, depending on the point from which you view it. This monolitic form looks like it is born from the terrain, that has encrusted in it and that has decided to emerge as a great sculpture of carved wood to set an edifice.

Depending on the facade, you will find an opaque canvas, almost without windows or a piece of wood carved so that it opens some holes towards the scenery. This idea of massive and austere volume is potenciated with venetian windows, because when they close, it gives the sensation of finding yourself before a flat canvas of wood without holes.

The facades of the house will be realized through an enclosure of wooden boards, likewise they will also be realized through an enclosure of window frames, the weatherings, the doors, and the shutters.

In the interior, the cascade ladder that follows the line of the slope leads to the open living room. Rooms with very different sizes and geometries maximize the spatial ambience.

Also tin the interior th wood is being used as the coating of the walls, roofs and floors, this potentiates even more the idea of a big piece of wood, gicantic, that has been carved and sculpted to finish setting the spaces in this house.

Technical Data:

• Architect: OOS architecture
• Year of construction: 2002
• Location: Feldis, suiza
• Photographs: Dominique Marc Wehrli