Tutzing, Germany. It could have been a dream project. The client: a former CEO of a bank who had just retired on a substantial severance package. The place: a sloping ground by the lakeside south of Munich with view of the lake embedded in smoothly undulating hills; the monumental panorama of the Alps in the background. The house: vernacular in style, but obviously bourgeoise in size, formerly owned by a famous German composer who found the setting to be inspiring for his compositions. The plot: the client indulged on the luxury of inviting five architects for a private competition in order to find the best solution for how to best add one more building to the existing setting on the area legally demarcated for this.
We started enthusiastically, visiting the overwhelmingly beautiful place, discussing the task, mapping the site, envisioning life after the intervention, playing with options, moving volumes around on the working model. We pushed and pulled ideas for buildings; pondered, weighed, doubted, halted. The place was just too precious as it was and there seemed to be no real pressing need for another building. Finally, it dawned to us that we should recommend not to build anything at all.
But could we hand in a proposal to do nothing? Would we make fools of ourselves at the presentation? Is no design also a solution? But, was it really no design at all? Or rather a design without tangible output? Lots of valuable thoughts, but no project. We were convinced that we had developed the right solution for this place. No surprise that we lost the competition.