Philipp Architekten BDA // Anna Philipp

Architecture Close to Nature

At first the access road leads 500 meters through the forest before you get sight of the house and the mountains. A magnificent view, which accompanies the resident from every corner of the house. The exotic building made of larch wood, stone and glass appears to be an organic part of the landscape with it’s close to nature architecture. The design is based on the shape of the isosceles triangle and the octagon. It was built in the 70s by Walter Philipp, the founder and current senior architect of Philipp Architekten, who is passionate about the organic architecture of the American master Frank Lloyd Wright.

Purchasing this house, the owner satisfied a long conceived wish: “I wanted to have a large and special house which has room for my things and dreams.” Good architecture and good design are his passion, which he communicates in his work as the publisher and editor of the design magazins "Atrium" and "Ideales Heim".

The house is witness to his great passion for art: Countless paintings are hanging and leaning against the walls and art, photography, architecture and design books pile up not only in the library on tables and in room-high shelves. Passing seating niches and design icons, the living room level is reached passing three steps, and after three more steps the seven meters high fireplace room. A steep spiral staircase leads down to the ground floor with sauna, a blue tiled indoor pool and direct access to the large, wild garden facing Lake Sihlsee, which you also can overlook from the two terraces. "The place is full of spiders," the publisher said casually, “but it's not as bad as all that. Because where architecture and nature merge in such a magnificent way, one must reckon with a few insects.”