29/09/2026
Preservation is not about freezing time, but reactivating forgotten thresholds.
A building rarely loses its identity to time, but rather to the uncalculated neglect of its physical thresholds. In this residence, elevated upper living spaces were severed from the soil, leaving lower service quarters shadowed and under-utilised.
Rather than imposing heavy-handed structural additions, we intervened through the small grain of the existing fabric. Guided by Altneu and site-specific colour archaeology, we re-articulated joinery, plaster, and basement thresholds to bring light deep into the lower plinth. By taking existing spatial memory seriously, the house reclaims its presence through material logic rather than cosmetic styling.
Can site-specific colour archaeology restore a building’s character more effectively than structural expansion? What happens when we treat secondary service spaces as primary archives of spatial potential?
📍 Project: Basel Solar Villa, Basel
📷 Photography / Documentation: MIDERI ARCHITEKTEN GMBH
🏗️ Tectonics / Transformation: