Located in a mixed, medium density zone, this detached family house in Vaud has a suburban context fairly typical of Swiss small towns. The existing structure had already undergone a number of previous alterations. The present owners wished to extend the current house and benefit from more spacious shared living spaces.

The proposed extension first makes it possible to add a ground floor volume to replace the outdoor terrace. This new space enlarges the lounge-kitchen area, now positioned at the heart of the building in place of the previous fragmented and much darker spaces. The three-level extension includes a large games room and bathroom in the basement, while the existing first floor windows have been enlarged to give access to a spacious terrace on the roof of the new structure.

The architectural expression of this contemporary extension is based on a remarkable feature of this transformed villa: its four buttresses. Such elements are very rare in the traditional architecture of small, modest detached houses.

The extension takes up this iconic figure of the buttress and reinterprets it in the form of five concrete supporting pillars with the same tapered shape. One concrete base, five tapered pillars, one slab and the project is complete.

This system is simple but highly controlled and perfectly symmetrical in an allusion to the precision of the orders in classical architecture.