Think Architecture Fragments a Lakeside Villa Down a Zurich Hillside

Swiss studio Think Architecture has split a 1,000-square-metre private house above Lake Zurich into two blocks, joined by what creative director Marco Zbinden calls a "subterranean art corridor".

House on a Slope occupies a narrow, steeply sloping site. Its volumes, clad in dark limestone and cedar, descend the hillside in a chain rather than standing as one object. The plan is straightforward: a "family house above, and a more grounded, protective house for children and guests below", as the studio describes it.

Why break the house apart?

The fragmentation was a response to the neighbours. "The brief was to bring a very large programme into a narrow, steeply sloping site with as much sensitivity as possible," Zbinden told Dezeen.

"We were interested in the quiet rhythm of the neighbouring houses, their individual scale, and the way they sit within the landscape," he continued. "Breaking the residence into smaller volumes allowed us to respond to that context without losing the generosity of the interior."

His summary: "From the outside, the house feels less like a single monumental object and more like a group of familiar structures that have always belonged to the hillside."

What sits where?

The upper block, entered at street level, holds the main living spaces — kitchen, living room and dining room — arranged across the first and lower floors. Large cedar-clad timber windows frame views down the slope. Several bedrooms sit on the top floor.

The lower block is more enclosed. Clad in dark limestone, it contains additional bedrooms and opens onto a garden and a large pool, with a planted roof terrace on its roof. Carefully positioned openings in both structures allow native trees to be planted, easing the transition into the hillside's mature foliage.

The connective tissue matters most. "They are intimately connected through a corridor – filled with art – and the central garden level, which becomes the social heart of the home," said Zbinden. "There, the architecture opens up, materials continue from outside to inside, and the different parts of the family's life naturally meet."

How do the interiors feel?

Upper spaces are open and airy. Lower spaces are enclosed and calm — a two-mood strategy rather than a single uniform atmosphere.

"The interiors were conceived as a direct continuation of the architecture, extending its material language into the most private and lived-in spaces," said Zbinden. The palette: bog oak, cedar, oak, Belgian bluestone, terrazzo (a speckled stone-and-cement composite) and patinated brass. In his words, "Materials that are tactile, honest, and become more beautiful as they age."

"The aim was to create spaces that felt warm and enveloping rather than decorated: quiet rooms shaped by light, texture, and proportion, where one can truly slow down and feel at home," he added.

House on a Slope joins a cluster of Think Architecture projects overlooking Lake Zurich completed in recent months, among them a minimal hilltop home and a house beside a vineyard. The studio, it seems, has made the Zurich hillside something of a repeat client.

The fragmentation strategy — big programme, small volumes — offers a template for building large on sensitive slopes without the monumental object Zbinden set out to avoid.