This Austrian Lake House Takes Cues from Louis Kahn and Frank Lloyd Wright

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Project Details:

Location: Zell am See, Salzburg, Austria

Architect: Steiner Architecture

From the Architect: "Louis Kahn’s Trenton Bath House was the starting point for this house on Lake Zell, snuggled in the Austrian Alps. Thus the pyramid hip roof sitting on a square base, the distribution of the ground floor containing the house’s more public spaces, and the courtyard, which takes its cue from the Bath House’s oculus.

"But here a wooden level has been added to accommodate the private quarters. A basement contains an ample TV room, laundry room, and storage. And instead of Khan’s concrete block masonry, insulated concrete has been employed for the base. The ensuing walls, fifty centimeters thick, afford the ground floor a categorical impression of stability. Thus the litany of strategies to balance the frigidity of the polished concrete inside: a lush yellow curtain in the basement, colorful curtains in the ground floor, a confident, joyful carpet in the first floor, bathrooms covered in bright colored tiles, and a waterproof curtain that wraps around the garage.

"The result is a building that is oddly classical—classical in the way it administers its weight, so that it seems to sit confidently, rather stately, staring at the lake and the old town of Zell am See across. It is rather classical too because all elevations are nearly identical, their porticos right in the middle or slightly off-center. It’s unexpectedly symmetrical, slightly Palladian, which could hardly be achieved were the garage not detached, and so what looks like a sleek lounge is in fact parking—a pavilion for the automobile. The tension between the two volumes ends up determining where the entrance to the house is.

"And accidentally, the house is reminiscent of one of Frank Lloyd Wright’s designs—the Westcott House (1908) and DeRhodes House (1906) particularly, with their wooden first floors sitting on sturdier bases. Perhaps because of that the house has a whiff of Japan.

"But the foreign references have not sapped the Zell dialect from the project, and far from it. Encouraged by Kahn’s Bath House, the design has avoided the temptation to disguise the pitched roof, as modern architecture tends to do. Instead, the house wears its steep slopes with pride. Nor is the overhang coy. It extends generously and plays with the wooden shutters underneath, which seem like a natural progression in delicacy and craftsmanship when seen against the traditional woodwork of neighboring houses half hidden in the Alpine woods."