Plateaux de Berne

Ostermundigen, Switzerland

Photo © Ruedi Walti

Architects: Marques Architekten AG

Location: Ostermundigen, Switzerland
Year: 2021
Time: 2014 - 2021
Architecture: Daniele Marques & Riner Schlumpf
Project Manager: Stefan Heiniger
Collaboration: Tim Eggermann, Julian Roduit, Cornelia Steiner

On the building plot on Hohlenweg in Ostermundigen, an exclusive terraced villa structure was eveloped on the slope of the Steingrüebli. The building site extends over the foothills of the Grossholz hills, on the edge of the developed plain of Ostermundigen. This is the site of the disused quarry where Berne sandstone has been quarried since the 15th century and used for numerous buildings in Berne's old town. This sandstone is also used in the plaster layer of the new buildings. In this way, the site has regained what was taken from it in a different form.

The project Plateaux de Berne forms topographically inspired architecture that reflects the particularities of the site. In its specific architectural language, the building perceptibly defines the outskirts of Ostermundigen, at the transition from the plain to the hilly elevation. The materialisation in light, rough, sandstone-coloured plaster lends the complex a tectonic effect and thus complements the quarrying of the building material in the former stone pit. The terraced arrangement of the residential units creates high-quality living with strong outdoor qualities, relationships to the view and integrated the local recreational space on the slope. Thus on the one hand, the group of villas is nestled into the undulating terrain, while on the other hand, it enters into a spatial dialogue with the adjoining forest to the northeast.