The Obsidian House

The Obsidian House is a study in geological integration. Situated on a south-facing ridge at 1,400 metres above Innsbruck, the commission presented a singular challenge: to create a home that is simultaneously of the landscape and apart from it — a monolith that declares its human presence without disturbing the sublime scale of the Alps.

The structural strategy is radical in its simplicity. Rather than excavating into the bedrock and pouring a conventional foundation, the building uses 2,400 tonnes of in-situ stone as its primary thermal mass. The granite ridge becomes the building's floor, wall, and structural datum simultaneously. This is not a building placed on nature — it is nature configured into a building.

The charred timber cladding — a technique adapted from Japanese yakisugi tradition — serves multiple functions. Its carbonised surface is naturally weather-resistant and fire-retardant, eliminating the need for chemical treatments across the building's century-long lifespan. Visually, the near-black surface creates a chromatic tension with the grey rock and seasonal colour of the spruce, making the house appear to solidify from the mountainside itself.

Internally, the plan is organised along a single east-west axis, allowing the winter sun to penetrate the full 34-metre depth of the house at the winter solstice. The primary living spaces face south through 6-metre-high glazed apertures; the private zones are carved into the rock face to the north, benefiting from its constant 12°C temperature throughout the year.