The Enigma of Home

A Study on Herzog & de Meuron’s Blue House

Part II in collaboration with Darya, Karina, and Vashnavi

In the spirit of Herzog and de Meuron’s Blue House, our brainstorming begins influenced by surrealist undertones and a contemplative gaze framed by two portals overlooking the gentle slope of a typical Swiss neighborhood.

In reflection of our four individually selected “objects”, three of our group members were individually drawn to window sections of the house. We could all agree that there was an innate affinity towards ideas of thresholds and transcendence; themes that the architects have left to linger in the blue facades that make the house appear “...as if it could drift into the sky”. As the artistic hand recreates the home, breaking down physical thresholds, the symbolic form returns to its structural reality. The window, once a catalyst for wonder, now becomes a paradoxical barrier—simultaneously inviting observation and imposing a physical divide.

Building upon our fascination with thresholds, our final project evolves into a contemplative, silent dialogue between the insider and a sentient outsider. Inspired by Herzog and de Meuron's intrigue in obscuring domesticity, and following our initial curiosities on how the outside world is framed within the confines of what the architect has allowed to be made visible, we have now shifted our perspective to consider the inquisitiveness of wanting to look inside. We invite reflection on what the internal world holds for those peering in, exploring the essence that distinguishes a house as a mere object from the profound concept of a home. By the end, our final construction and its inevitable remnants have all become a record of existence—an object with the imprints of what was.

Tools: Lightroom

Model Making (plaster, plexi, foam core, wax, fire | Photography | Graphic Design

Physical Model

On Materials

True to the relative orientation of our ‘objects’ in the original Blue House, at the heart of our exploration lies the fireplace, radiating warmth and light, and serving as the nexus of our creative endeavor. The dichotomy of materials, paper and wax, mirrors the transformative encounter with fire. One material disintegrates into ashes, and the other melts into a puddle—both processes leave the materials in a state devoid of conscious form. So then, what remains and what has been lost in this process?

What is left?

This metamorphosis prompts an exploration of what endures and what is relinquished; we understand this as a metaphorical process where the tangible presence of a house succumbs to the intangible sense of home, to the point where any formal quality of the house becomes irrelevant. In the end, it is the enduring light that becomes the beacon that announces the presence of life within. Thus, our project intertwines wax, fire, and a process of un-making through re-making to unravel the enigma of home.