KiKö House | Riehen, Switzerland | 2022
[Wallimann Reichen]
Photography by: Willem Pab | assistant/art direction by Eva Candela.
The house (built in 1913) is located in the green Pfaff enloh district of Riehen and is characterized by a lush garden with lots of trees. Following the acquisition of the family home, the building is to be given a new identity with limited resources that will suit the young family with two children.
While the kitchen was too spacious and could not be used and furnished properly due to doors and fi xtures, and the dining room was too far away, a wall opening creates a redistribution of usable space. While the deep, oversized wooden beam allows the passage from the kitchen to the new dining room, it also forms a threshold and continues the chamber-like spatial structure.
What may appear to be an imperfection gives substance not only to the coexistence of old and new, but also to the traces of transformation. A coat of paint visually unifi es and soothes the diff erent wall surfaces that have been found and aff ected by the demolition work. Although the concentration on just two interventions on the fi rst fl oor leaves everything else untouched, they manage to noticeably change the living space and its perception. They connect and open up the rooms both to each other and to the large, leafy garden to the south. Text description by the architects.
Source: www.wallimannreichen.ch + www.willempab.com
