Tour a Brutalist Home in Zurich That Embodies Tranquility | Architectural Digest

When Victoria-Maria Geyer was introduced with an prospect to style a dwelling in Zurich, it felt like a aspiration occur real. That the home was a Brutalist masterpiece by renowned Swiss architect Ernst Gisel was—for the Hamburg-born, Brussels-primarily based inside designer—a profession-defining second. “When the home owners requested me to occur on board, I had to do this,” Geyer says, pinching her personal hand. “They sent me images of the household, and straight away I was seduced.” The gravitational pull of the home lured Geyer from Brussels to Zurich with the endeavor of incorporating warmth and texture to concrete and steel.

Positioned in Küsnacht, a wealthy enclave some 15 minutes by car from Zurich’s town centre, the household was obtained by the customers in 2021. Whilst the shell of the structure was a Brutalist marvel, the interiors left a whole lot to be preferred. “The previous house owners lived in the property as it was crafted,” clarifies Geyer. “There’s a expression in French, dans son propre jus, which usually means to soak in ones juice. That was the problem with the interiors. So I experienced to go in and genuinely transform the environment.”

What makes interior renovations tricky is doing the job in just a predefined house. What can make it even harder is when that predefined space is forged in concrete from the hand of an iconic architect. “Because Gisel’s style and design was so distinctive, I could not just go in with the components I really like performing with silk, velvet. I had to conjure what the room permitted me to use.” This meant Geyer executed a palate of blues, grays, whites. “I employed metal, but then contrasted it with tough textures this kind of as materials, stones. It was a obstacle to not use the elements I commonly gravitate to, but what a worthwhile working experience it proved to be.”

When the stop outcome was just one the designer and owners came to adore, getting to that point was a logistical nightmare. “It was my 1st project in Switzerland,” Geyer clarifies, “and I did not know the hoops I would have to jump as a result of in declaring just about every small point that I brought in from unique pieces of the environment.” The inside designer is now functioning on other quite a few a lot more houses throughout Switzerland, and has vowed to not make the identical administrative issues.

But for Geyer, the headaches manufactured the end results all the more meaningful. “My beloved section of the home begins and ends with the kitchen area,” she suggests with a smile. “I appreciate the curtains, mainly because it provides these a textured splash of colour to the home. I had to be calculated with these times, to not cannibalize the artwork on the walls. But definitely, for me it is actually the eco-friendly table that anchors the space.” Geyer made the table, alongside with an assortment of other pieces of furnishings in the course of the dwelling. “The fact that I was able to carry my own styles into the property produced it all the extra meaningful.”

The clientele are significant art collectors with two small children jogging all around a recipe, some might muse, for disaster. “The property owners are quite down-to-earth and have a excellent sense of humor,” Geyer states. “They have a good deal of gorgeous art on their partitions, but they want to stay in a household, not a museum. I indicate, glance, their philosophy is: Really don’t halt your daily life for the reason that you have young children. They have white carpet in their house. If that does not sum up how comfortable they are with youngsters managing around, I really do not know what will.”