Shine a light - the Brückner private residence

This property, owned by the Brückner architect couple, is located in the suburbs of Oberaudorf in Bavaria, in an intimate meadow that offers a peerless view of the Alps stretching from Bavaria to the Tyrol.

The architect couple of Laurent and Susanne Brückner fell in love with this special position immediately and decided to build themselves a special home here.

Together with their team, the two architects designed a floating box on thin steel uprights that houses the bedrooms in this "Shine a light” building. The space below is mainly glass and offers a unique view over the fields and meadows right up to the massive and imposing Wilder Kaiser mountain range. Open, with large free areas and the whole southern side made of glass, this space offers a wide range of light situations depending on the position of the sun. The glass surfaces also mean that, at night, the building becomes a sort of lantern that projects light.

The construction is made of solid wood and rests on a concrete base. A material that continues inside this one-family home where the concrete has been left exposed. It is also a completely self-sufficient building thanks to geothermal wells that reach depths of 60 metres to heat the building in winter and keep it cool in summer. 100% of the electricity required for the heat pump is generated by the photovoltaic system that covers the whole surface of the roof.

The formal language adopted for the interiors evokes the sunset by combining cold grey tones with warm orange highlights. And the high point of this open space is the kitchen area whose shape is inspired by the Kaiser mountain range.

At the centre of the lounge there is a smooth silver sculptural block that does not seem to have a specific function but is actually a multi-purpose space for housing different things and offering access to three more rooms that cannot be seen from the outside.

The architects chose iGuzzini luminaires for their capacity to blend in with the architecture. The main luminaires chosen for the project are linear recessed devices like the minimal version Laser Blade and the Laser Blade XS that light the entire daytime area but are also present in the home theatre. Underscore light lines are used on the upper floor to create general lighting and emphasize the house’s architectural structure. But they also offer light effects in unexpected places, like inside the niche used as a coat rack or along the banisters, which, in some cases, feature the RGB version, and around the “porthole” that joins the children’s bedrooms and from which you can see the sky. The InOut version of Underscore is used in the sauna too. In the bedroom, the end wall that indicates the bathroom space has a special texture that is highlighted by a Linelauce mini 47 luminaire with a wall grazer effect. All the iGuzzini luminaires offer DALI technology and are controlled by a KNX system. On the outside, Underscore InOut light lines reconnect and recall the interior light lines, whereas at the corners of the building, Platea Pro luminaires also provide lighting for the outdoor garden space.

"Shine a light" received the special BIM prize at the 2020 Heinze Awards. This was for both its application of the BIM design method to a small building and for the overall architectural quality achieved.