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WOHNEN • LIVING INNERE WERTE • INNER VALUES

Küche: poliertes Metall, grün glasierter Lavastein • Kitchen: polished metal, green-glazed lava stone Geschlossene Schrankwände: Klare Ordnung unterm Tonnendach • Closed wall units: order under the barrel roof

T he Swiss architect Ernst Gisel (1922-2021) once formulated the essence of his three towards the slope. Due to projections and recesses, these levels can clearly be
architecture as follows: “Every house is a sculpture.” According to this princi-
seen from outside. Together, they result in a varied composition: At the street level
ple, he designed and built in Switzerland, Germany, Austria and the Principality of are the glazed garages and the protected, high entrance areas cut deeply into the
Liechtenstein numerous public buildings, among them his main work, the Parkthea- buildings. On the living floor above, open as well as covered terraces extend the eat-
ter in Grenchen (1955), the protestant church in Effretikon (1961) or the major com- in kitchen outwards towards the west, in the direction of the lake. The massive ex-
plex of the town hall in Fellbach near Stuttgart (1986). Gisel furthermore designed posed concrete communicates protection, the steel pergolas radiate lightness. At the
residential buildings for a wide variety of needs and target groups, on large and back, the living room opens ceiling-high, almost over its entire length, towards a
small scales: individual and semi-detached houses, studio houses and residential calm garden courtyard. The parental bedrooms have their own outside areas; com-
towers. For 1,800 residents, he built a complex of the Märkisches Viertel in Berlin pletely high above the street are the roof terraces. Inside, incisions and cut-outs in
(1969), for temporary stays the youth hostel in Zurich-Wollishofen (1965), for himself the walls of the living room, niches and a fireplace result in a sculptural spatial struc-
a home in Zumikon (1966) and individual houses for numerous private clients. Part ture. Striking are the exposed-concrete ceilings strongly structured due to the form-
of his late work are the two Leutert semi-detached houses in Erlenbach near Zurich work. An open staircase with massive balustrades rounded at the front sides and rai-
which he designed in 1988. The ensemble was completed in 1991: two slate-clad con- lings of steel tube runs across all the levels. Beneath the barrel roof is a single room
structions consisting of two houses each with flat sloped barrel roofs and massive flanked on both sides by terraces. Victoria-Maria Geyer was faced with this strong,
elements of exposed concrete towards the street. intact structure when, in 2021, she was commissioned to adapt one of the houses to
the needs of its new residents.
Snozzi: “… a precise answer to a specific location …”
Strong structure of steel concrete
In 2010, the Zurich gta Verlag published the monograph Ernst Gisel Architekt. Luigi
Snozzi writes in it: “Gisel’s buildings all give a precise answer to a specific location In principle, the brutalist architecture would be self-sufficient, states the interior de-
…”. As do the Leutert duplexes in Erlenbach as well. The buildings were constructed signer resident in Brussels and with German roots. Experienced in designing high-
on a long, narrow, not all that deep plot. They have four storeys towards the street, quality apartments, she as a rule is able to draw on unlimited resources as to design.

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