002 PAVILLON
PRIVATE HOUSE EXTENSION
PORRENTRUY, SWITZERLAND
Project and realization 2004-2005

Client: Private. Type: Commission, full services. Area: 325 m2. Structural engineer: Voisard & Migy ing. s.à.r.l. Porrentruy. Project team: Jean-Frédéric Luscher, B. & J. Luscher Le Roy.
Photographs by Géraud Siegenthaler, JFL

The project is a partial remodel and an extension of a house of 1925. Instead of amplifying the house on the full width of the square building, the project is a projection of a pure volume of glass and exposed concrete into the garden. It defines a sculptural shape for the ensemble, and offers new frontal and lateral visual relations to the garden: a pavilion in the trees. The volume is fully glazed on the south and west sides and opens in a various ways to a terrace, with no threshold thanks to sophisticate sliding windows. The first row of apple trees becomes almost part of the interior. The east side is completely closed with an exposed concrete wall, which give a «vis-à-vis» to the neighbour’s property wall and a more private life for the owner.

Formerly a representative garden with apple trees on the side, the new situation is a more versatile response and offers an interaction between indoor and outdoor life. New mix-borders under and around the trees softly complement the strong architectural piece.

The single-family house is now divided in two apartments. A special care was brought to maintaining the integrity of the construction. A metallic exterior staircase gives access to the upstairs duplex apartment. This enables a future reversibility of the division in two parts. The roof of the pavilion is a large terrace and is designed as a mineral surface out of gravel with vegetal inserts, which contrasts with intense vegetation all around.