Peter Zumthor, who designed the house for his wife, was limited in his work by the requirements of local legislation. According to these regulations, new residential buildings in the village of Vals, including its “suburb” of Lays, where the house of the architect's wife is located, should (if possible) be built of wood and (necessarily) be covered with granite tiles. The traditions of folk architecture are preserved there not only at the local level: one of the houses in Valls has the status of a cantonal monument.
Zumthor took note of the need to observe the "national tradition", but interpreted it in more free forms, taking into account also another tradition that deserved respect - the residential architecture of the 20th century. By placing Annalize's house and a second similar building, intended for rent, on the outskirts of the village, therefore - higher than the rest of the houses on the slope, he emphasized their location with elongated proportions. Unlike wide and squat traditional houses, Zumthor's structures are very narrow, which gives them the appearance of "towers". They are also distinguished by large, than is customary in Waltz, glazing planes: these are ordinary windows, and bay windows, and balconies. Thus, the houses are open to the outside, into the valley, and are also built into the terrain.
For the slabs, Zumthor developed a new lightweight structure: he abandoned the heavy longitudinal beams, which are needed to support the stone tiles and which required the construction of thick walls. Instead, the rafters are reinforced with transverse steel rods, and there are no beams even along the roof ridge. Thanks to this, the walls made of pine beams remained quite thin, and also freed up additional space under the roof.
