Name: Wågensjö / Herberger
Location: Geneva suburb (France)
Size: 2,368 sq ft + 40,000 square foot garden
Years Lived In: Since March 2005
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What originally drew us to Wågensjö and Herberger's home was their amazing home office desk. Their architect built the floating desk, which attaches to the wall behind and at its sides, with a hollow core where cables and power strips can hide. Once we started flipping through their Flickr account though, we saw their house had a lot more to offer than just a cool desk...
My/Our style: Modern, Le Corbusier, Kartell, Knoll, Vitra, USM Haller, Stelton, Lammhults, Lehni, Cappellini, Belux, Alessi, Artemide, Zero
Inspiration: Raum & Wohnung, Swiss German revue
Favorite Element: Cedar facade, Office and roof terrace with electric plexiglas hatch (terrace)
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Philosophy on Integrating Technology Into Your Home: The less cables showing the better!
Biggest Challenge: Getting the construction permit because one part of the house has a flat roof (terrace) which delayed construction start with one year!
What Friends Say: Wow! First visitors always stop in front of the cd-wall and turn their head up and stare at the ceiling where the Milk-Bottle lamp is attached, eight meters up!
Biggest Embarrassment: none
Proudest DIY: The cd-wall idea and making the frame.
The "cd-wall" was sold in Sweden in the mid nineties. This one is built from four cd-wall systems to make one large cd-wall. They are attached to an aluminum frame with light coming from behind. The face is Mozart and it's from a box set.
Biggest Indulgence: Two custom-designed showers with stainless tubs and sandblasted shower walls, roof-top terrace
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Best advice: Always take an architect close to the bldg site! Always check up on everything yourself! Don't count on not getting any disappointment, you will! Go for Swiss local craftsmen!
"We have a eight-line telephone switchboard in the house with eight old (aprox. 1960-1977) phones most made by Ericson (I'm a fan of old (Swedish) phones). We can then call different rooms in the house! Especially fun is to dial 77 wich make all phones ring at the same time, we use it for getting people down when breakfast is served for example! In our house we mainly use Skype (another invention from Sweden ;-) ) and of course our iPhones."
Materials:
- The facade is entirely in cedar
- Walls and inner roof are made of OSB (Oriented Strand Board)
- The floor is black pigmented concrete with water heating
- Inner doors, kitchen and bathrooms all have black pigmented MDF
- Benches in kitchen and bathrooms are made of black Corianâ„¢
- The flat roof is a 19 sq.m. terrace
- The house is heated using ground heating. Two holes are drilled down to 150 meters
- With the help of a motorized roof hatch, you are able to access the roof terrace
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Thanks Wågensjö and Herberger!
what an awesome tour! i love the teacup collection display and yes, that desk is rad!
view kdkaboom's profile
Lovely collection! Very inspiring design direction!
view ekoshyun's profile
What I want to know is, how did the phone system can done?? What a fantastic idea. I live in an old trailer and its stupidly long. I'd love to put in phones on the walls like this.
view Jaie's profile
I love the walls. Any idea how the OSB was finished? It looks so clean. How were the walls put together?
view gem's profile
wow. simply amazing house and even more amazing objects. Love it! Love it! Love it!
view souk1501's profile
We should thank you! Congratulations on such a beautiful place. I just wonder about the MDF computer desk. I would have thought it would not be sturdy enough to hold lots of heavy equipment. I love the combination of materials you have used and 8m high ceiling as well. It must be a stunning place to be in. I get the sense this is not in France, though. Is that a typo error?
view JudithLuxPod's profile
Thanks for your kind words! The desk is very sturdy so no problem there! The house is indeed situated in France (close to the Swiss border and Geneva).
view Wågensjö/Herberger's profile