Küsnacht, CH, 2023

elderly housing

open competition, 5th prize

A clustered volume, a historical mansion, a barn, and their garden — an elongated entrance court, a corner loggia, a sunlit café terrace.

Phaistos is an articulated building that embodies the stratification of its historical context. It consists of four blocks joined together, embracing a flowing interplay between interior and exterior as well as its historical landscape and the views over the lake. With its volume, it defines a sequence of four outdoor spaces with different characters: a service forecourt towards the street, a shady entrance court for the residents with a view onto the garden through a generous transparent lobby, a panoramic terrace for the bistro enclosed on two sides by a porch. 

"The corner entrance of the historical Landhaus is complemented by a porch that extends around the corner and serves as the bistro's outdoor terrace. Large stone slabs accentuate the intensively used leisure areas between the buildings. This finely woven carpet ties the old and new building ensemble together and gives it a new identity." (Extract from the jury report)