Renovation single-family house Eleonorenstrasse, Zurich 2012

• Building: Terraced single-family house, preserved as a landmark
• Year of construction: 1924
• Client: Private
• Assignment: Overall refurbishment and floor plan adaption
• Services: Planning and realization
• Project handling: Anna Hotz Semadeni, Livia Stöckli
• Surroundings: Garden monument preservation
• Collaboration: Gretener Bauplanungen, B4 Möbel

The house on Eleonorenstrasse is part of a cluster of houses built after the turn of the century as residences for professors at the nearby university. Erhard Gull, son of Gustav Gull and architect of the Bellerive Museum, rearranged the houses along the lines of the English garden city in a loose and green ensemble of two-storey semi-detached and semi-detached houses. The house is entered via the staircase, which offers a view right up to the roof and from which all rooms are accessed. In the original disposition, two separate smaller adjoining rooms are attached to the two garden-facing main rooms on both residential floors. The conversion project connects the rooms on the ground floor to form an open sequence of eat-in kitchens, salons and living rooms, while preserving the original typology and allowing each room to develop its own mood.

Photography: Stefan Jäggi