A beautiful site, just outside of Graz, with a very restrictive development plan and a very ambitious budget formed the starting point for the planning of
Love Architecture partner architect’s own home. Simple yet complex, clear and yet playful, light and optimistic, small and large at the same time. A place that architecturally is, without being too demanding of people, unconventional, yet very special and should be the everyday home for Bernhard Schönherr and his family.
One of the basic ideas was to connect flawlessly the relatively large plot of land and the living room, ie make the border between house and garden as indistinguishable as possible. That meant many subtle and ambiguous boundaries and transitions between the interior and the exterior: large glazing with big sliding doors, terraces leading into the property and leaving covered areas at these boundaries to help blur the line.
Another challenge was the relatively rigid construction plan with a gabled roof and a prescribed inclination standard. A coated folding started from the seat pedestal to the south terrace and the outer walls, the roof continued over the structure and in this way it forms a “saddle roof” without appearing as the conventional pitched roof one can see in many houses of Central Europe. This folding was spatially differentiated in each area, making the entire complex even more visually stimulating. The resulting space and perspective makes the house appear completely different from every angle.
The rooms have a ceiling height of up to four meters, not usual again for Central Europe houses. Inside the layout is organized around a central main room for cooking, eating and living. Large sliding doors between the individual rooms that combine when opened to a flowing path throughout the rooms. Each room has its intimacy and particularity, either on its own or expanding by its outdoor access. For example the bath has its own terrace with outdoor shower, which are only separated by wide double doors. Thus, the facility, weather permitting of course, can redouble its area.
The construction is solid: brick and concrete walls and a reinforced concrete roof. The roof is covered with wood. The shaded part of the roof connects it optically with the terraces into a whole.
