OFFIZIN|A [SARAH GATTO] · Cooperative Housing Risihof ©gatto.weber.architekten

Seraina Wirz

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In the village core area of Risi near Zurich, the new cooperative housing complex Risihof replaces the former farmhouse with barn and comprises today a total of 13 apartments for rent. The architectural intervention reacts subtly to the default urbanism, by leaving an appropriate and qualitative free space between the two new houses and connecting in this way the surrounding built context.
With their placement and the volumetric arrangement the new buildings clarify the access situations to the area and generate clearly defined outside spaces and traffic routes. They stretch a common car-free outside zone which forms the address of both houses and is used collectively as well as privately. The result is a smooth transition between the newly built free space and the existing one of the village core.

Seraina Wirz

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By picking up, processing and reinterpreting typical features and materials, the new project should be able to carry on the place characteristics to these days and to the next generation. The recessed loggias with folding shutters were integrated in the ‚mass‘ of the building, in this way they don’t change the general view of the traditional objects. The opening dimensions were adapted in favor of a contemporary residential use.

Simply in shape, the aluminium folding-sliding shutters interpret the original blinds in a new light. As well as the old known ones they serve as individual sun protection and become a significant stylistic element in the facade design. The use of the classic plaster for the exterior facade also corresponds to the strategy not to completely set off the new from the original. The facade was handcrafting plastered with a vertically grooved comb texture and thereby gets a strong, uniform appearance.