What would Heidi have thought?

In Hirzel, the home of Johanna Spyri, the author of the children’s book Heidi, an architectural finesse, which combines railings and lighting, is providing creative staircase illumination.

Come with us on a trip to beautiful Switzerland. To the home of Johanna Spyri, who lived in Hirzel, a very idyllic, easily reachable mountain pass between Lake Zurich and Lake Zug. Hirzel is a small town with about 2,000 inhabitants and a few peculiarities which merely add to its charm. Hirzel is very much characterised by tradition: the area accordingly underlines its rural character by defining itself as a farming community. Hirzel has, however, also its modern side. Located only 20 km away from Zürich, it is used by the inhabitants of the Swiss metropolis not only as an extremely attractive local recreation area but also increasingly as the urban out-migration hideaway of Zurich’s well-heeled inhabitants. Hirzel is a region, which combines contradictions in a skilful manner.

The office GKS Architekten+Partner AG from Lucerne has built ten multi-family residences in Hirzel, whose design is in line with the surrounding houses and was inspired by the old farmer houses, which one frequently comes across in central Switzerland – but reinterpreted with a contemporary design and modern materials. A glimpse, in particular, into the half public, half private staircases of these residences will leave you amazed. The stairs do not spiral upwards as usual around empty space but around an internally softly illuminated perforated sheet cube. Heidi would definitely have taken it all in and excitedly told her Granddad all about it…

It is very easy to interpret the function of this light box. A staircase needs a railing and lighting, why not combine both in the centre of the stairwell? You can also discern a very different reason for this design, namely that of the lead project architects Rolf Gmür and Eugen Antón. The idea for them came from the cupboards and display cabinets which can often be found in the entrance area of old houses in the countryside: instead of closed drawers they have a mesh made from wood or rattan cane
behind which is located the fine china or a holy statue – visible, yet protected. Similar to the nature of perforated sheeting: both practical and beautiful.

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