In the years 2012-2013, Lasa Marmo manufactured and supplied cover and furnishing elements for exclusive bathrooms for the remodelling of an Engadine country house by the Swiss architectural firm Ruch & Partner Architekten AG, based in St. Moritz. Specifically, Lasa Marmo's factory produced floor slabs, wall panels, bathtub cladding and solid basins from marble of the commercial grade LASA BIANCO ORTLES®.
The St. Moritz based architectural firm Ruch & Partner Architekten AG, with architect Hans-Jörg Ruch as its founder and majority shareholder, has made a name for itself far beyond the Engadine with renovations of historic farmhouses and patrician houses. As part of its work, the architectural firm also addresses issues of settlement development that reach back to the Middle Ages. Often the centuries-old houses, which have changed over time, are restored to their original structures and then given a modern twist in their redesign. Ruch also has every house that he wants to rebuild, examined dendrochronologically, i.e. he has the age of the wooden parts determined. This is followed by cooperation with the society for the preservation of historical monuments & buildings, the local heritage protection association and the archaeological service during the architectural conversion and redesign. The motto of the Swiss architect: "The new must subordinate itself to the old". On the other hand, Hans-Jörg Ruch says: "I am not a conservator, I am an architect". In this way, but in particular, by using exclusively regional building materials, such as Lasa marble for exclusive bathrooms and wet areas, a harmonious dialogue between old and new was created in the redesigned Engadine country house. Hans-Jörg Ruch comments: “The installation of bathrooms in historic houses in the Engadine is a balancing act in many respects, as there were no bathrooms in these rustic structures in the past. Once a meaningful location has been determined, the question of what materials can be used arises, taking into consideration that all the walls in these houses are whitewashed. With saw-rough Lasa slabs/panels, which we use in large formats in the wall and floor areas, we come optically closest to the lime plaster, so that in the ideal case a fusion is achieved and the transitions are hardly visible. It goes without saying that all washbasins are worked out of one block.”
The trade journal "Architectural Digest" praised his work: "From private houses to housing estate projects: Hans-Jörg Ruch is as accomplished as he is productive on almost any scale".
