Semester Project, ETH Zürich
Studio Adam Caruso
Zürich, Switzerland, 2017
In 1990 the Swiss Institute for Art Research converted the residential into an institution building.
The garden - owned by the City - was open for the public, but never went through an adaptation process to its new use as a park. The connection of the villa and the garden - planned as a whole – got interrupt. The loggia as the connecting element of the garden and the villa now works as a majestic barrier between public and the public institution.
As the public opposite to the loggia, the pavilion is aiming to formally detach the garden from the villa and make it possible to read both independent, but also together. In it’s placement on the bottom of the slope of the garden oval it addresses both, the slope as the tribune and the terrace with the bay window as the anchoring point of the garden façade, with the living room behind.
The expression of the pavilion connects to the design and colouring of this living room and through that transports the interior to the public exterior. The pavilion - as a stage - becomes a piece of furniture. The cladding of it’s closed façade is a olive green metal sheet, which reflects the surrounding nature in it. Together with the brown glazed wooden structure it refers back to the interior with its floral patterns and exotic wood.
If the stage is used, the front can open up. The interior reveals its rich colouring, which can be seen as another reference to a different culture added to the style pluralism of the ensemble.