Located on the southern edge of the hamlet Tobler, on the northern slope of the Buechberg, the former farmhouse dates back to the 18th century and was partly built in the traditional style of a log house, making it especially valuable to preserve. Like most houses in the hamlet, it also originally boasted an attached barn and outbuilding. The barn no longer exists, but the volume it occupied served as a model for extending the house’s living area. The outbuilding was demolished and replaced with a second residential unit that takes up the vocabulary of traditional design and seamlessly connects with the rest of the building.

The original farmhouse was a wooden construction on a sandstone base, flanked by a stable and barn up into the 1960s. The log construction was in good condition, but the stable, which had served as a storage shed, was in disrepair and had to be demolished. Likewise the building’s western exterior wall, made up of matchboard, couldn’t be preserved because it had been badly damaged by woodworm and dampness combined with an incorrect load transfer threatened to collapse a part of it.

▼历史中的农舍，farmhouse in the history ©Historical photo

«The house on Buechberg in Thal lives from its 300-year history. All the owners and residents have left their mark on the building. And so it was with great curiosity and a spirit of discovery that we – together with the owner, local authorities and other planners – dedicated ourselves to this fascinating house and its different layers. Our goal was to preserve and show as much of the original substance as possible while transforming the old farmhouse into two new residential units that meet today’s needs and bringing the majestic view of Lake Constance indoors.»——Andreas Schelling, kit | architects

The attached barn served as a model to extend the building’s living area, creating a spatial interplay between the bedrooms located within the original log house construction and the new area that takes advantage of barnlike high ceilings. Two large openings to the north open out onto the vista toward Lake Constance.

▼高耸的谷仓空间，barn space with heigh ceiling ©Ruedi Walt

▼朝北的巨大开窗，large window towards the north ©Ruedi Walt