Projects
2 projects
The Inverted Farm
The Inverted Farm by BARD YERSIN architectes is a conversion project in La Bruyère, Vuisternens-devant-Romont, that transforms a typical 19th-century regional farmhouse. Originally designed to bring dwelling and agricultural functions together under a single roof, the building faced modern challenges. It was deprived of its farming use, located outside the building zone, and featured an exceptionally large volume that was difficult to maintain given the limited habitable floor area permitted. In this context, the client’s mixed housing and permaculture program represents a rare opportunity for a coherent requalification of the whole. Because the single-storey surface of the existing dwelling is insufficient for the owner’s needs, the project reverses the original uses. The former agricultural volume accommodates the new home, while the south-facing dwelling is completely emptied and converted into a greenhouse dedicated to permaculture. Since the barn space remains oversized for domestic requirements, the design strategy introduces a self-contained volume set back from the existing envelope. The resulting intermediate areas alternately serve planting zones and covered outdoor spaces for the house. To anchor the new dwelling in the building’s constructive logic, it is conceived as a timber structural grid, set out on the module of the existing roof structure and complemented by timber and glass walls. This system efficiently transfers the roof loads while limiting the exogenous character of the inserted volume. The plan organization follows the rhythm of the original structure. The bays corresponding to former haylofts accommodate the main spaces, benefiting from double-height volumes and through spaces. The segments aligned with the former stables and storage areas are subdivided by terracotta brick cores housing the service spaces. Lateral enfilades connect the different rooms, reinforcing the perception of the building’s exceptional dimensions.
Conversion of a Wine Storage
In Basel, Esch Sintzel Architekten have transformed a former wine storage building into a residential complex, carefully balancing its monumental industrial character with the intimacy of domestic life. The most defining elements of the structure—the mighty mushroom columns—are retained as the central protagonists of the new design. Their robust forms are exposed and staged in different ways, allowing residents and visitors alike to experience their presence throughout the building. Two internal streets run the length of the house, weaving between the columns like urban corridors. These passages act as both circulation spaces and social zones, giving the building a spatial rhythm reminiscent of a small city within the larger urban fabric. Access to stairwells, laundry rooms, and entrances branch off from these internal streets, while a diversity of apartment typologies unfolds around them, accommodating different generations and lifestyles. On the mezzanine level, the inner street connects directly to the city outside through stairs and ramps, softening the threshold between public and private. Commercial spaces and a café occupy the prominent ends of the building, strengthening its urban address. At the top, the network of circulation culminates in a communal room and shared roof terrace, offering residents collective spaces that extend beyond the individual apartment. Esch Sintzel’s intervention demonstrates how adaptive reuse can preserve the monumental qualities of industrial heritage while embedding new forms of collective living. The Weinlager project exemplifies a city within a house—an architecture that stages history while shaping contemporary urban life.