The Building as Generator of the City – EM2N`s building projects

The Building as Generator of the City
– EM2N’s building projects from the
viewpoint of urban planning
Text by Gerhard Mack
Published in EM2N – Both and, 2009
Recent Swiss architecture exhibits a marked preference
for individual buildings. Examples of this tendency include
Mario Botta’s early villas in the Ticino ‘Tendenza’, as well
as the concrete-built architecture that developed later in
the German-speaking part of the country and has become
an international trademark under the label ‘Swiss Box’.
A series of general factors probably played a role in this
development. One of these is Aldo Rossi’s teaching at the
ETH Zurich in which the significance of the concrete design and building the city occupied a central position. This
theory countered Lucius Burkhardt’s largely sociological
examination of architecture and urban planning conducted within the framework of the 1968 movement and concentrated attention once again on the core business of the
discipline. Rossi did this, however, by shifting the typology of the city into the foreground and aiming at using its
history to develop current concepts. This typological way
of thinking inevitably focussed attention on the individual
building and its historical possibilities. Further concepts
that accompanied this conceptual tendency include the
purism that, is invariably cited, mantra-like, in relation to
Protestant Switzerland with its weakness for architectural
minimalism and its tendency towards perfectionism. This
perfectionism finds its basis and expression in the high
standards of the Swiss skilled building trades that, despite the deterioration due to the world-wide phenomena
of standardisation and industrialisation in the building
industry, are still clearly superior to levels abroad. It is
therefore selfevident that the career of the ‘Swiss Box’ in
its many forms, from transformer station to private house
to museum, is inconceivable without the unique quality
of the concrete poured by Swiss concrete builders. This
striving for the perfect object now characterises the buildings by a middle generation throughout the country’s agglomeration belt. It has also become evident very recently
in a number of relatively independent positions. Examples
of these include Valerio Olgiati’s Swiss National Park Centre in Zernez that started operations in 2008, as well as
the Leutschenbach School Building in Zurich by Christian
Kerez, which opened in summer 2009. The standard line
of argument is that, up to and including such examples
of high-end architecture, it is only by withdrawing to or
condensing the object that makes it possible to offer the
kind of quality in architecturally undefined surroundings
that can later serve as an anchor for future developments.
There may occasionally be a certain truth to this argument, but in the majority of cases such freestanding buildings are erratic blocks that, on account of their foreigness,
are not only unable to establish any kind of relationship to
their surroundings, but clearly have no wish to do so. Individually they emanate the strange flair of agglomeration
icons of a contemporary modern architecture stranded in
a featureless mush of development.
Fig. 3: Valerio Olgiati, Swiss National Park Centre,
Zernez, 2008
Fig. 1: Mario Botta, House, Riva San Vitale, 1971–1973
If one is unwilling to make do with this, all three points
referred tom are open to discussion. The strategy of the
pure object that flirts with artistic positions, as represented by Donald Judd’s ‘specific object’, and aims at using
the energies of art for architecture, can, instead of being a
goal that must always be implicitly striven for, be seen as
just one tool in a kit of architectural approaches. In such
a situation the task would be to think of the individual
building in terms of the nature of the surrounding urban
mesh, to define the latter’s needs and to use them as a
scale. In such an approach the interplay between what
already exists and the perspectives of repair and further
development takes a central position. The typological
dimension of a design would obtain its framework from
the topological location. And perfection would no longer
be judged in terms of the maximum possible as regards
technology and skills, but more in terms of the greatest
possible degree of functional efficiency within the framework of this urban planning development.
A number of different counterpositions have formed that
reject the fetishisation of the building object, some as a
result of taking a look at the urbanist discussion in the
Netherlands. The most prominent reaction has been the
founding of the ETH Studio Basel. In its Swiss study the
factors that shape the dynamics of development throughout the country are first of all crystallised and subsequently specified in focussed examinations. EM2N are among
the architects of a younger generation who enrich this
broad horizon by developing solutions for concrete building commissions. Their designs amaze one with the selfassured manner in which they take up the approaches
available and combine them in unorthodox ways. It is no
accident that Mathias Müller and Daniel Niggli bring with
them experience in both Dutch and Swiss offices and
feel committed to Robert Venturi’s view of the difficult
whole, as formulated in his Complexity and Contradiction
in Architecture. Consequently the contradictory, rapidly
changing life experiences of the users and the demands
of society, as well as transformation, conversions and further development occupy a central position in their design approach. For the architects in this practice that was
founded in 1997 it is not the master plan developed from
abstract parameters, but rather the selective starting point
of a concrete building commission with all its complex implications for its surroundings that becomes a lever which
they have already used in a number of projects.
Fig. 2: Aldo Rossi, Gallaratese Housing Development,
Milan, 1968 –1973
Fig. 5: Publication of ETH Studio Basel, Basel 2006
Fig. 4: Donald Judd, Untitled, 1984
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Fig. 6: Publication Robert Venturi, 2nd edition,
New York 1977
The extensions to the neighbouring Hardau Schools finished in 2005 are examples of this selective starting point
and of the variety of strategies used. The two complexes
stand between four residential tower blocks up to 92 metres high, built between 1976 and 1978 to a design by Max
P. Kollbrunners above a shared plinth storey, and a few
lower slabs of a housing development that dates back to
the 19th century. Both the Vocational and Primary School
were to be extended and adapted to meet contemporary
educational requirements. The Vocational School was designed by Otto Glaus in 1963 / 64 and is a listed building.
Here young people were intended to gain experience in
different skilled trades and to find a practical approach
to professions such as carpenter and locksmith. Working
according to the principle of the Modulor, Glaus, who had
studied under Le Corbusier, designed a complex reminiscent of a monastery that in terms of its atmosphere recalls the Dominican friary of La Tourette (1953) by Glaus’
teacher. Four large wings for the workrooms and three
smaller service buildings define courtyards and are connected with each other by open but roofed passageways.
EM2N recognise the quality of this ensemble and look for
ways of translating it into a contemporary language. Consequently they do not choose a confrontational strategy,
which would emphasise their own extension and make
it into a kind of competitor, but instead continue the existing substance by ‘cloning’ and ‘mutating’ the central
structural characteristics of Glaus’ complex. They add a
new two-storey slab to the existing complex that closes
the buildings open to the housing blocks in the north and
creates new courtyards. The concept of covered connecting passageways is transferred to the inside. The suite of
classrooms is given glazed corridors that are so wide that
they can be used as teaching spaces, particularly because
the escape routes were moved to form an additional layer
in front of the building. As these corridors are deeper than
the classrooms, the latter can be additionally lit from the
corridor side also, through a band of high-level glazing.
Along these internal routes the old building repeatedly
emerges as the core of the complex and is in a sense almost ‘framed’. The column of the roofed school recess
yard represents a direct inversion. It takes up the sculptural form of the silo tower intended by Glaus for burning
left-over wood, and once again underscores the respectful but yet playful treatment of the existing substance,
which was built in what was probably a more heroic phase
in the employment of modern architecture. Here the inversion, the process of opening and the integration in the
contemporary situation are given a symbol.
Fig. 7: EM2N, Hardau Vocational School, Zurich, corridor
If, in the extension of the school complex, the focus in the
interior is on a sequence of quasi-monastic courtyards
and connecting routes between them, externally, too,
these elements prove to be the most important tool in
opening the complex towards and for its surroundings in
a new way. A covered school yard is cut out of the extension building at ground floor level, a second entrance here
opens up the complex from what used to be the rear. The
new public route to the building leads into the inner private circulation of the complex and can be used to cross
the entire site. Private status and public use are overlaid,
the school building no longer stands like an inaccessible
obstacle between the residential areas of the Hardau Towers, which through their plinth storey alone give a closed
external impression, and the older housing. Instead it creates a connection between them that may very likely also
have a symbolic character. The school, a building type
that is essentially narrowly defined in terms of function,
is used as an instrument to transform an imperceptible
boundary between two neighbouring sites into common
territory that presents and stages the idea of establishing
contact. EM2N have underscored this aim by a number of
further measures. Together with the landscape architects
Schweingruber Zulauf they managed to implement a network of routes and a garden-like layout in neighbouring
green wasteland and transformed the play and sports areas into clearly contoured outdoor spaces that can also be
used by the general public and provide an attractive meeting place thanks to the variety of inclined planes, ramps,
boundary walls and marked sports pitches, as well as a
generous rhythm of compressed and extended space.
Since the completion of the project, this space has been
used intensively by neighbouring residents.
The Primary School is also integrated in this semi-public, semiprivate school-oriented network of routes and
squares. The striking coat of blue paint alone gives a better presence to this building, which stands directly beside the northernmost housing tower block. It was built in
1985, (also by Glaus’ office), and later given an additional
storey. Two interlocking slabs accommodate the day nursery and the kindergarten as well as new classrooms. They
are staggered in relation to each other by one floor and at
the centre they form a common zone that, using sliding
partition walls, can be allotted to either the kindergarten
or the teaching area, as required. The roof terraces for
the day nursery and the newly created courtyards create
an individual outdoor space for each of the three areas.
Stairs and route provide an additional connection to the
forecourt, which is terminated by the new sports hall designed by weberbrunner architekten.
Those aspects of the Hardau Schools that are of particular
urban significance reoccur in a series of further projects
by EM2N. The Viaduct Arches extending over a length of
more than 500 metres that they restored in Zurich were
given simple insertions for a wide palette of uses and
make a meeting place for local residents out of an infrastructure building that slices through the city. By means
of economical interventions combined with clear use of
signs and the basic colours of the Swiss Federal Railways
(SBB) logo EM2N made Hardbrücke Railway Station easily recognisable as what it is: a central transport node for
commuters who use it daily to change between the tram,
bus and rail services. They also indicated the weak points
that need to be remedied in a future, more dense use of
the surrounding area.
Fig. 8: EM2N, Refurbishment Viaduct Arches, Zurich
Fig. 9: EM2N, Hardbrücke Railway Station Upgrading,
Zurich
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The conversion of the former Toni dairy in Zurich West
into a university centre for 3000 students – at present the
largest project in the office with a budget of over 370 million Swiss francs – applies the topographical model to the
organisation of the building volume itself. The architects
developed the exploited volume, which has afloor area
about the size of the Tate Modern in London, in a honeycomb system around five light wells and a key-shaped
public core that extends vertically in diagonals through
the building and accesses a compact city in the city. At its
short end this core has a public use on each level in the
form of cinemas, exhibition zone and concert halls so that
even after the two main tenants, the Zurich University of
the Arts (ZHdK) and the Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW), have closed down for the day, the building remains a generator of urban life. To achieve this the
access ramp is designed like a boulevard that leads to
the green zone along the railway viaduct laid out by the
municipal authorities.
The Community Centre Aussersihl (1999 – 2004) demonstrates how fluently and subtly EM2N can apply their
topological approach to the smallest of areas and under
restrictive conditions. It is located in a densely populated
part of the city characterised by a certain level of social
tension. This meeting place for the heterogeneous residential district not far from the city centre is the outcome
of a hard struggle. Aussersihl was the only urban district
without its own community centre, the frequently changing alternative locations for this function led to the Bäckeranlage park being taken over by tramps and drug abusers,
making it by and large unusable for the majority of the
other residents. But at the same time, in the absence of a
community building, the park still fulfilled the function of
a social meeting place, albeit in a somewhat limited way.
When EM2N won the architecture competition in 1999
they sought to give due recognition to this ambivalence.
The park was to be preserved as a meeting place, but altered by the new building in a way that would restore its
attractiveness for families too, and would help to fulfil its
function as a stage on which social intercourse, or at least
meetings, between the various residents can take place.
What was called for therefore was a kind of recontextualisation that would enhance what already existed and
preserve its essential strengths. This led to the building
being conceived as a function and an element in the park.
A start was made by confining the ‘footprint’ of the building to the minimum possible so as not to use up too much
ground, instead the centre was developed vertically. The
architects looked for a form that would fit in with the existing planting in such an organic way that for three quarters
of the years it almost disappears behind the foliage. The
elliptical floor plan translates the cross section of a tree
into a geometric form, the bend on the inside explicitly
takes an existing tree into account and communicates the
aim of fitting in with the existing situation.
Fig. 10: EM2N, Community Centre Aussersihl, Zurich
The integrative approach goes so far as to positioning the
threestorey building in the circle of trees running around
the Bäckeranlage so that it augments and indeed almost
terminates this ring. On the concave side, the centre
opens towards the park in a gesture of greeting, the fullheight glazing of the ground floor restaurant and the large
windows on the two floors above offer a view of the park
and the people in it. The form demonstrates an awareness of the typology of a community centre. While using
individual elements such as the the programme with restaurant and the multi-purpose room that is available for
rent or the inviting opening, it does this in a very free way
that is related entirely to the topopological characteristics
of the Bäckeranlage and to its function.
This unconditional approach, developed from the place,
also proved to be extremely useful in overcoming a number of obstacles that emerged suddenly. The Zurich municipal council reduced the budget for the design, from the
original figure of 5.45 million Swiss francs, by 40 per cent
to only 3 million francs. EM2N reacted to this by radically
concentrating on the core of their project. The expensive
glazing of the entire building was abandoned, the volume
reduced by 25 per cent. So as to avoid producing a cheap
version that would have seemed to indicate a lack of respect for this district, the architects used conventional
materials, often those with dull and ‘respectable’ connotations, in unconventional ways. The round building
is constructed using economical sand lime bricks from
the 1980s, and the ceiling slabs were cast in mono-beton.
Striking colours give the materials a fresh flair. The staircase hall with the cascading stairs is painted orange, the
large hall yellow, the bar a poisonous green, which also
turns the colour of the foliage into something artificial.
And the large areas of glazing in the facade that is built
up of several layers are clad externally with plexiglass,
of the kind familiar from bicycle sheds. Where the aim is
to achieve the lightness of a pavilion in a park, a wooden
facade seems obvious. Simple strategies are combined in
ways that achieve unusual and complex effects. In their
Community Centre Aussersihl EM2N show how the fabric
of the city can, in part, be repaired without having to view
oneself as a kind of urban handyman. These architects are
successful with their intervention above all because they
see the colour patterns and the gaps that, when filled, can
be made to glow, and because they first of all produce
the superordinate entity into which these patterns can be
introduced. Their architecture augments and clarifies in
ways that reformulate the existing, increase its effectiveness for a functioning city and, almost en passant, allow
something entirely new to develop.
Note:
This PDF was downloaded from http://www.em2n.ch.
Copyrights for pictures and text are covered by the Publisher. All image credits can be looked up in EM2N – Both
and on page 235.
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