Hasenacher is an incredibly beautiful single family private residence that has been designed by Stelle Lomont Rouhani Architects, located in Zurich, Switzerland. It is a place filled with memory. Historical memories of a different time abound, memories of a different purpose, memories of Hasenacher’s beginnings, memories of children laughing, swimming, growing up and having children of their own. Preserving those memories as footprints in time served as the foundation on which reimagining this house and preserving its sense of place in time transpired.

Description of the project from the architects: That times changes is certain. Every generation brings its own concerns, desires, intentions and aspirations to the places it occupies. So it is with the buildings in which we live. Not all are so fortunate as to be able to shape their environment to these changes and so express their vision, their hopes, and their recollection of memory of place. Given the opportunity to do so, Hasenacher is not a re-creation; it is a conception of the delight in the memories of past and a history known only through the remembrances of others.

Iconic in its siting, it occupies its original location and footprint, and seeks an enhanced place in the lives of its current stewards. Sitting at the edge of a forest, atop a moraine, the house is at the center of the arc of the sun, farm fields unchanged for centuries sloping away to a vista of the lake, the lake nestled at the base of the distant hills, the hills yielding to the majesty of the snow capped mountains in the distance. Time seems irrelevant and one’s memory is encapsulated in a continuum of the millennia to the present.

Hasenacher, the house, is flexible, accommodating to the changing times, a testament to its early Architecture. Hasenacher, the place, is steadfast, replete with the memories collected over the centuries.

That one can live there and partner in its subtle evolution is a privilege and life affirming.

Photos: Matthew Carbone