Nussbaumer Architekten AG

Ten minutes by train from Zurich, the streamlined, four-storey new building offers the qualities of an urban home for several families at once: at Heinrichstrasse in Uster, the multi-generation house combines two stacked, spacious maisonettes and a one-room studio that can be used flexibly. The sought-after location in the direct vicinity of the railway station leads to an development of the single-family home estate built in the 1920s. Guided by the desire to assert itself in a heterogeneously grown environment, the new solid building looks like a monolithic sculpture, which is given its unique expression through slight cubic shifts.

The overhanging parts of the building give the house a subtle playfulness with their floating appearance, while the building otherwise exudes a robust fortitude. The façade design in turn embodies an interplay between protection and view, which leads to a corresponding room atmosphere inside: The bedrooms have a sheltering effect, the high living hall of the mezzanine flat seems to merge with the garden, and the attic opens on two sides to a spacious roof terrace with a view of the foothills of the Alps. Raw surfaces on the inside frame the surroundings and add depth to the spatial experience. Both inside and out, the home is characterised by a reduction to the essentials, creating an atmosphere of calm and security.