Page 5 - AIT0520_AuxLosagnes

SERIEN IKONEN BEWOHNEN • LIVING IN ICONS

Der zweigeschossige Hauptraum im Erdgeschoss dient als Ess- und Veranstaltungszimmer. Daneben liegt die Frühstücksküche. •The two-storey main room serves as a dining and event room. Next to it is the kitchen.

which the villagers also like to take part. On the ground floor there is the kitchen Kunstsinniges Betreiberpaar aus Zürich: der Ökonom Stéphane Lombardi und der Arzt Armin Zink
and the living room. Equipped with a library, vinyl record player and tiled stove it
invites you to read. It is visually connected to the adjacent breakfast room via a wall-
sized glass cabinet full of artificial butterflies. On the first floor there are three of five
bedrooms and the bathroom with a free-standing bathtub. When having a bath, one
can look out into the open through the gaps between the wooden beams.

The new owners wanted everything but Alpine chic

The bedrooms are spartan but exquisitely furnished. Bedside tables or chests of dra-
wers are adorned with painted motifs. Electrical installations are visibly laid on the
wooden beams and have plain Bakelite sockets. A wooden staircase painted in two
shades of green connects the two upper floors. The green reminds Armin Zink, one
of the owners of the house, of the freshly mowed lawn of Wimbledon. Memories of
the Furka Hospice with its striped shutters by Daniel Buren, once so beautifully con-
verted by Rem Koolhaas, come to mind. Zurich-based physician Armin Zink and his
partner, economist Stéphane Lombardi, bought the old house in 2015, motivated by
childhood memories. Before that, Café Engi was located here, and its operator was
looking for a successor. From the very beginning it was clear that the house should
be transformed into a holiday home that would not only accommodate friends and
guests, but also host cultural events. "We wanted everything — except Alpine chic,"
the two new owners agreed. This concept was jointly implemented after commissio-
ning the London-based architects Adam Caruso and Peter St John, who run a branch
office in Zurich. Mirroring wood, imitating railings, painting patterns — the architects
broke with the credo of material authenticity that usually weighs on Swiss conver-
sion projects, and with simple means — the budget was limited — they created a ma-
gnificent hideaway. Arriving at the top end of the striped stairs under the roof gable,
one arrives in a cosy salon with a library. An overturned coffee cup lies on the books-
helf — on closer inspection you can see the portrait of Angela Merkel sketched skil-
fully into the coffee dregs. Art everywhere! Looking out of the gable window towards
the ski slopes, which extend into the snowy village with its uniform timber buildings,
one fervently hopes that such places, which owe their existence to an admirable,
non-commercial initiative, will not remain a rarity.

038 • AIT 5.2020