Sumit Singhal Sumit Singhal loves modern architecture. He comes from a family of builders who have built more than 20 projects in the last ten years near Delhi in India. He has recently started writing about the architectural projects that catch his imagination.
Sempachersee Golf Club in Sempach, Switzerland by Smolenicky & Partner Architecture
November 12th, 2011 by Sumit Singhal
Article source: Smolenicky & Partner Architecture
The largest golf course in Switzerland
The expansion of the Sempachersee Golf Club to include a second 18-hole course has made it the largest golf club in Switzerland. It is located approximately 15 km from Lucerne in the very heart of Switzerland.
The architectural office Smolenicky & Partner was commissioned to design two new buildings in connection with the enlargement of the course – the club house and restaurant building and the new maintenance building.
New alley from the parking place to the club house 02
The topographical situation
The club house is situated precisely on the topographical crest where the level plateau of the golfing green breaks into a steeply falling slope. At exactly this point the vista opens out into a view over the lake and the Alps of inner Switzerland. The public footpath that transverses the golf club also runs along this topographical ridge.
Driveway to the Club-House
Expression as stylistic strategy
Both the architecture and the interior design of the new building aim to combine two distinct atmospheric phenomena of the site into a single effect. This new manifestation is moulded on the one hand out of the country character of the golfing culture of the Sempachersee course, and on the other out of its worldly sophistication. To this end the appearance oscillates between the rural warmth of a timber barn and the clear lines of a Masserati sports car. This is the attempt to embody both the reality of the dualism of the site and its potential within the building itself.
Bar member-area
Interior spaces
The three main functions of the project are centrifugally grouped around the centrally located kitchen – the invisible fulcrum of the project – namely the public restaurant, the members’ dining area and the two large entertainment rooms, the latter stacked one over the other. Each of the two restaurants has three large viewing windows, which due to the geometry of the rooms together form a sequenced 180° panorama over the landscape. The mirror over the bar constitutes in effect a fourth window, multiplying and refracting the panoramic impressions.
Terrace member-area
In marked contrast to the two restaurants, the large entertainment hall is dominated by a single over-dimensional window, forming an almost 20 meter-long, wide-screen panorama over the perennially snow-covered Alps. This deliberate staging of the of the sheer grandeur of the landscape gives it a cinematic quality akin to a Sergio Leone Western.
Bar public-area
Exterior spaces
The expressive, seemingly object-like overall form of the club house building is created by the definition of the two U-formed exterior spaces. The two-dimensional, dark-orange wall encloses the public forecourt – the main entrance to the building – like a partition, while the dark-blue lacquered “screen” defines the exclusiveness of the outside space for club members.
Lounge
Loungebereich
Stairs for member and public to basement
Cloakroom member
Veranda in front of meetingroom
South-facade 02
Veranda reception-building
New alley from the parking place to the club house 01
New alley from the parking place to the club house 02
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