I was working for a client on a project in London when he asked if I would look at some drawings of a new chalet he wanted to build in Switzerland. He had asked for a traditional timber-built Chalet à Coche but the drawings looked more like a modernist sauna with no traditional details. In my research I came across “Peasant Art in Switzerland” published by “The Studio” in 1924 which proved to be a wonderful inspiration. Driving up the mountain on my first visit to the site, I was astonished to see that the buildings in the villages had all the details that I’d been researching and had been ignored by the Swiss architects. Of course, this was to be a building which incorporated all modern technology and conveniences, and the result is not a replica, but a house more in the spirit of the 18th century aristocratic Cottage Ornée traditi
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