The new Sonnenbad is a place for recreation and social interaction, and includes a variety of different all-year-round services. Its centerpiece is a natural swimming pool, located in the middle of a vast garden area with a valuable population of trees. The circular pool includes a swimmer and non-swimmer area and a surrounding pond for biological water filtration and treatment. The pool is complemented by open and covered recreation areas, changing rooms, a restaurant and a kiosk, an event hall and a youth center, a sauna with a relaxation zone, and a small maintenance area. The existing buildings date back to the early 20th century and were built at a time when public and group hygiene and health awareness became important. The latter are now at the end of their life cycle, hence replaced and complemented by a modular wooden structure. The linear historical layout and its enclosed outdoor areas are incorporated and further developed. The architecture is reduced to a structure that may serve as the origin for multifaceted and diverse places, moods and associations. The structure can be sometimes stronger or sometimes weaker and should be able to adapt to the needs and the times. This new place is characterized by interplay between framing and permeability, between closeness and expansion, eventually between fragility and resilience.

The new single-family house is situated at the rear of a private plot on a gently sloping site, carefully embedded into the challenging terrain. Built upon a dried-up riverbed, the site features a multi-layered subsoil composed of clay, loess, rock and Rhine gravel. In the underground, a retaining wall running along the entire length of the house holds the loose gravel and ballast. At the heart of the house is a continuous, ground-level living space, glazed at both the front and rear to open onto the garden and framed by living areas on the sides. This spatial continuum seamlessly connects the interior and exterior spaces, facilitating a fluid interaction between the two. Sliding and folding doors along the sides allow the living area to be connected or separated from the adjacent rooms as needed. Cross-references between spaces are deliberately encouraged, while rigid boundaries are largely avoided, allowing the living space to remain adaptable and expandable. The central space results from a process of spatial disentanglement, achieved by separating the main load-bearing walls, within which the enclosed rooms are formed. The main living space, the most conceptually rich area, is structurally conceived as an “empty” room, creating an atmosphere of simultaneous tension and calm. An open staircase connects the central space to the upper floor, which rests on four inner corner points of the external walls below. Interestingly, this layout places a significant load and accentuates the defining moments of the “empty space”. The exposed concrete load-bearing walls are positioned at right angles on both floors reflecting the deliberate alignment of the rooms and the careful balance between sensitivity and robustness in the structural design. These design elements are inspired by the multi-dimensional geological features of the site and the structural density of the environment. The architecture seeks to harmonize natural integration with the constraints of its complex surroundings. Here, calm meets unrest. Thresholds define transitions, while flowing spaces dissolve boundaries. Together, they form a unified and enclosed space. A place, a house.

The strategy of densifying the existing building fabric creates new collective space and centrality. The level of interaction grows with the increase in activities and spatial density. By bundling and strengthening the existing node field, a dissolution and lack of reference is counteracted. The new structure is intended to create proximity to the existing school buildings and outdoor facilities and use the familiar access routes. The extension encloses the large central sports field of the school complex, similar to an urban square, and thus defines a place of high social density. At the same time, the new building complements this square with a spacious covered outdoor area. This new space can be used in a variety of ways and is easily accessible thanks to the four open corners. A special feature of the design is the generously covered and open “meeting floor”. The open first floor, the “empty space” is full of content. The decision to design an unenclosed space is the result of spatial unbundling and the desire to create a space charged with energy and excitement. The individual sensory experience is promoted where experiences, ideas and possibilities come together and the relationship to the surroundings can always be experienced. A spatial continuum that lends identity and continuity to the site and leads deep into the topographical edge to give the site maximum tension.

At the edge of a steep hillside overlooking the city and the surrounding landscape, a residential house and a guesthouse are placed as two independent volumes. Towards the city, they appear as two-storey buildings, while on the garden side they read as single-storey linear structures. The garden, with swimming pool, pergola and dense vegetation, forms the spatial counterpart to the architecture. Both houses are accessed from the garden. A space in between separates the residential house and the guesthouse, while simultaneously connecting the upper garden with the lower slope and ensuring the desired level of privacy. The living spaces are located on the upper floor, with the private bedrooms on the level below, embedded into the terrain. A roof light in the guesthouse and a sunken courtyard at the main house bring daylight deep into the hillside-oriented rooms; here, a bridge directly connects the dining area to the garden. The floor plan follows a sequential order of primary and secondary spaces. The main living rooms are framed by exposed concrete walls and fully glazed towards both the city and the garden, while service spaces are positioned in between and articulated with lower ceiling heights. The structural system follows this sequence of concrete wall panels and floor slabs, allowing the omission of transverse load-bearing walls. As a result, open interiors with fluid transitions to the exterior are created, while the lateral enclosures remain robust and precise. This ambiguity between solidity and indeterminacy defines the architecture. It emerges from the layering of exposed concrete walls anchored deep into the terrain and the self-supporting timber beams placed above. Internally, the concrete surfaces remain raw, while externally the buildings are clad with ventilated vertical charred timber slats.

The new apartment building is a proposal for urban living in the countryside, where freedom of movement and density go hand in hand. It makes use of its diverse surroundings and transforms them into a building that connects the upper countryside with the lower suburban area. As a pavilion in the garden, the aim is to create a connection between the apartments and the surrounding nature without compromising the newly envisioned urban presence and scale. A Blue Rider is to appear as a symbol of the departure towards a new way of living and a new urbanity in the hub of a peripheral area of the Zurich metropolitan region. The existing green space is seen as one of the main qualities that must be preserved and strengthened. The valuable existing trees represent this quality and characterize the cubature of the proposed building, whose form and position consider the preservation of all trees. In view of the general desire to live in continuity with the outdoor spaces, the extensive verandas are conceived as outdoor spaces. These are areas that can be used either as outdoor or extended indoor spaces, depending on the climatic conditions, and that allow an intense proximity to the existing trees and the garden all around. The proposal for a daily life that is very much connected to the outdoor space is seen as a great quality that is possible in suburban areas such as Brassersdorf, as opposed to very densely populated urban areas.

The project situates itself within the historic territory that has been shaped by sand and wind, the flow of water and people over millennia. It reinterprets the agricultural pattern of walls dissolving towards the outskirts of the historic city. Through a series of interventions that define space through the addition and integration of different types of walls–and charging its articulations with meaning–the project offers a modern, comfortable space in dialogue with its own past and future. Modern technologies like a geothermal system and wind-power generators make sure that the architecture partakes in sustaining the civilization it cradles and fosters for generations to come. The architecture galvanizes the rich environment, and the experiences offered into an intimate space that strikes a balance between maintaining what is precious and enriching it with permanence, comfort, and a sensation of synchronicity with its own culture and environment.

The horizontal building structure is thoughtfully embedded into the contours of the hillside; the transition from the interior to the exterior is seamless and fluid. The narrow retaining walls bordering the residence and the enveloping yard give shape to a courtyard setting and preserve the palpable feel of the sloping terrain. A set of steps delineates the spatial flow of the interiors from entryway to the living, dining, and kitchen areas, picking up on the character of the descending outdoor terrain. The floor, fireplace, and two exterior load-bearing shear walls are made of concrete. A homogeneous structure, seemingly cast in one piece, encases the living room and serves as the foundation to the overlying wood construction. A solid wood construction consisting of four exterior sheer walls and two transverse walls forms the structure of the overlying story, where the bedrooms are located. The wood construction is left exposed to the interior, while glass and metal surfaces form a weather barrier on the exterior. The wood structure rests on two vertical concrete shear walls, cantilevering to the front and back. It is stabilized by way of cross-bracing steel tension bars on the east- and west-facing windows that hold the two wooden shear walls together. The ceiling on the ground floor is hung front to back by way of tension rods attached to the two transverse steel roof beams. The concrete construction on the ground level and the wood construction on the upper level interlock at two key junctions: the transverse concrete wall balanced over the fireplace forms the rear wall of the upstairs master bedroom and concrete bathtub; on the opposite side by the staircase, the wood construction runs through to the ground level. Two differing construction methods join in mutual dependency. What emerges is a static balancing act that unleashes an energetic, expansive sense of space and engenders an architectural language rich in associations.

Two residential buildings and two pavilions form a simple ensemble that opens up a shared garden at its centre. Placed along the edges of the site, the buildings define a clear urban figure – open to the neighbourhood yet spatially coherent. The garden becomes the social and spatial heart of the project: a place for everyday life, retreat, and collective use. Living unfolds through a sequence of interior and exterior spaces. Access balconies, verandas, and in-between zones act as social thresholds that allow casual encounters without compromising privacy. Different apartment types enable multi-generational living: compact units, larger family flats, and senior-friendly “Stöckli” models. The floor plans are robust, well lit, and adaptable – able to respond to changing needs over time. The architecture follows an elementary logic: a modular timber structure that turns repetition into spatial richness. Two pavilions complement the ensemble – one for shared activities, one for technical and storage functions – making a basement unnecessary. This reduces material consumption, ground intervention, and service runs. Passive climate strategies, district heating, and integrated solar panels ensure low-impact operation.

Seen from afar, the museum appears to be a heavy, closed structure that rests in itself and hovers flat above the ground. The two bodies each stand on two feet and allow the open public space to flow deep into the interior and close to the surrounding wall. There is no threshold and no boundary. The first floor is a flowing area between inside and outside. Protected under one roof, the visitor maintains a direct connection to the interior and exterior space, to the museum and to the park. It is an open spatial continuum, as the rooms are all public and not private. An interplay between open levels and seemingly closed volumes, a dualism that is almost liberating. The horizontal open spatial continuum transcends close to the perimeter wall to form a vertically opening space. This reinforces the necessary spatial distance to the wall in the south-west of the complex and its articulation. The declared "empty space" is by no means emptiness. The resulting emptiness is the result of a spatial disentanglement and it is the energy and tension of this empty space that can be perceived in the individual sensory experience and can bring people closer together at this specific location.

The new building will be extended around a new main body, which naturally seems to hover over the existing building. Between the new and the existing structures, the greenhouse, which stands for innovation and sustainability, will be introduced as median layer. The interpolated mezzanine is visually drawn back, whereas the structure of the upper floor displays an accentuated exteriorized design. The upper floor assimilates the structure of the existing building, supporting itself on it. The concept is clearly legible and comprehensible, representing transparency and candor. Air pollution and smog are a severe problem in Singapore. Singapore is committed to the urbanistic purpose of connecting the natural, tropical environment with the tree population, for which reason the cityscape is dominated by street trees, greenspaces, parks and façade greenery. The blueprints for the Swiss chancellery aim to reflect this actual climate change policy and achieve a technical, architectural and innovative building. The greenhouse is the lungs of the building, stretching between the new and old sections of the structure, and ensures a natural air purification process through interior greenery. The air will be filtered through the greenhouse, which virtually serves as an oxygen reserve, and the plants spread the purified oxygen with greatly reduced levels of carbon dioxide through the ventilation systems in each area of the house. The severely polluted air will naturally be cleansed.