Haus Gnadenwald
In the forest
A 1930s holiday house, a plot among the conifers – and the task of renewing and extending it without losing the character that draws people here.
The client has long owned the 1930s holiday house on the edge of the forest at Gnadenwald – and that was precisely the brief: renew and extend, but keep the character. Anyone who loves a house from this period rightly fears the refurbishment after which it looks “as new”. Here, it was to look more like itself afterwards than before.
01
The existing building with its characteristic pitched roof was therefore carefully refurbished: the façade was restored, old materials were reused rather than replaced, and the energy upgrade – insulation, building services, photovoltaics – works invisibly in the background.
02
The extension is taken on by the new building: single-storey, in timber and glass, set among the conifers – you live almost as if in the forest. Its recipe is deliberately simple: clear timber construction, elegant lines, plenty of glass for the view into the trees – and still cosy, because the timber keeps warm what the glass opens up. The low volume tucks itself into the slope and leaves the leading role to the old house; it is precisely the contrast – steep roof beside flat edge, 1930s beside today – that creates the ensemble.
Under construction, completion 2026.
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