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Business meets pleasure

Brilliance appears on the shores of Lake Geneva

Business meets pleasure
30 September 2010

For those of us who've had the difficult task of working from home at some point in life, you will appreciate it when we say it's an eternal struggle between finishing that piece of work that's been sitting on your desk for three days, and finishing off that Murder She Wrote double bill on BBC1. Thankfully, this new home on the shores of Lake Geneva has been designed to stop your wandering eyes from finding the TV.

On the one hand, the Sow House is a sprawling, glass-fronted living space replete with L-shaped living area that connects with a series of outdoor living areas and a lanscaped garden. So far, so residential.

On the other, South African architect firm SAOTA has created an adjacent office building accessd by an underground passageway, thus avoiding the temptation to put the kettle on and raid the fridge because you're bored - and avoid the freezing Swiss winter. Once you're in your professional surroundings, there's a spa, pool, garage and cinema to mull over that big presentation you're working on.

Now, that's quite a gauntlet of distractions on offer on the long commute from home to office. But, if you can resist those temptations then, my friend, you deserve to live in a house like this.