The intent of the design is neither to establish a connection to nature nor to "bring the outside in," but rather to question the dichotomy of interior and exterior – of architecture and not-architecture – itself. The spaces are defined by the relative sense of enclosure among the walls rather than by the geometric volumes bounded by them. The house has no façade, and the elevations likewise have no fenestration.

A modular grid defines the proportions in both plan and section. Served and servant spaces are articulated structurally, the latter between a series of short parallel walls along the hall. But in fact, the entire complex is conceived as a utilitarian core – a happenstance attendant space for the landscape in which it sits. The interior spaces are compact and tightly programmed, with the idea in mind that they serve specific, limited functions, but that ultimately life is elsewhere.

The design turns routine critiques of Jeanneret’s proposition that «une maison est une machine-à-habiter» on end. It is neither the implicit behaviorism nor the mad enthusiasm for the machine that is alientating, but rather the notion that the house is the container for life. Contemporary life has mechanical accoutrements, and there is no reason the experience of the technical aspects of day-to-day life should not fall within the realm of the aesthetic. But they are still a means to an end. Real life takes place in relational rather than physical space, or – in the words of Buber – „in the Between (im Dazwischen), the seemingly empty space … between man and man.“