A Folded Structure Learns the Twist: Boatyard in Cully

The hillside vineyards are a UNESCO World Heritage Site; the annual jazz festival and the town’s proximity to Lake Geneva have long counted as big attractions to Cully, which is located in the Swiss canton of Waadt. Now Lausanne architects Localarchitecture have expanded the local boat port by a new workshop that translates the typology of traditional fishermen’s huts into 21st-century building methods. The most striking characteristic of the wooden building, which measures 330 m2, is surely its modular, prefabricated ceiling, which is visually separated from the base construction by glazed gables. It has the shape of a twisted concertina: the highest point of one gable lies opposite the lowest point on the other side of the ceiling. Ridges and arrises flow into each other. All this is borne by a structure of sloping, trussed rafters of glulam on the ceiling’s planes.

The floor plan is divided into three sections: the boat shed to the lakeside, a two-storey ancillary room and office wing facing the shore, and the paint shop, whose entrance is beneath the easternmost of the five gables. The supports are integrated into the façade; they divide the view of the longer sides. In addition, there is a row of supports and a longitudinal girder between the main and ancillary spaces. This beam also functions as a track for a travelling crane that runs above the boat shed. OSB panels form a robust wall surface inside. Outside, the vertical supporting elements and the edge of the roof are clad with larchwood, while the infills are of spruce. The reddish roofing, which has a slight glitter effect, visually connects the new boatshed to the row of buildings on the lakeshore.