Merya Conversion Sanitary Building / BARAKI

Built in the late 1980s, the Gruyère rest area was designed in the spirit of post-modernism, reconfiguring vernacular materials and architectural elements to form a complex of several buildings, including the public toilets building, which is the subject of this conversion. The existing building has a masonry base, mainly made with reinforced concrete, with a facing of local river pebbles visible from the outside. A glued-laminated timber frame forms a 2-slope roof. This triangular volume is laterally offset, creating a covered square in front of the entrance to the toilet blocks. To support the loads, four oblique beams are extended to the ground, providing impressive views of Lac de Gruyère and the Fribourg Pre-Alps.