A We aim to produce architecture that is powerful and

We aim to produce architecture that
is powerful and personal, architecture
with the capability of developing its
own character. As a result our projects
may polarize the public, which is fine
with us. One may love or hate our architecture, but one should never be left
indifferent.
A post-idealistic children of the 1968As
generation, we do not recognise a
single great truth, but find in the fractures of real­ity a ground in which to anchor architecture. This is the radicalism
that we derived from Venturi’s ‘bothand’ principle. But both-and should not
be mistaken as being arbitrary or indecisive. Behind and within it lies the
problematic recognition of equitable
values, and a longing for an architecture
that renounces all dogma, opening itself to the freedom of possibility.
1
EM2N with Mathias Müller (*1966)
and Daniel Niggli (*1970) has 70 collaborators working on construction
and competition projects in Switzerland
and abroad. In addition to a number
of awards including ‘bestarchitects’,
‘Umsicht-Regards-Sguardi’, the ‘Auszeichnung Guter Bauten’ from the City
of Zurich, the Canton of Basel-City of
and Basel-Landschaft, they received
the ‘Swiss Art Award’ in Architecture.
Mathias Müller and Daniel Niggli were
visiting professors at the Swiss Federal
Institute of Technology in Lausanne,
as well as in Zurich. Daniel Niggli is a
member of the construction commitees
in Berlin (2008–12) and Zurich
(2010–14).
A
Their important recent construction
projects include the Toni-Areal in
Zurich (2014), the extension Herdern
Railway Service Facility (2013), the
Keystone Office Building Prag (2012),
the Culture and Congress Centre Thun
(2011), ‘Im Viadukt’– Refurbishment of
the viaduct arches in Zurich (2010) and
the Hotel City Garden in Zug (2009).
Planning and construction work has
started on, among other projects, the
Swiss Film Archive in Penthaz (since
2007), the Housing Riedpark in Zug
(since 2008) as well as the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts,
School of Design and Art in Emmenbrücke (since 2015).
Biographies
P
Partners
Associates
Selected Awards
2014
2012
2011
2010
Conversion Habsburgstrasse, Zurich
Arc-Award 2014 category ‘Conversion into
Living Space’
Keystone Office Building, Prag; Refurbishment Viaduct Arches, Zurich; Culture and
Congress Centre, Thun; bestarchitects ’13
Refurbishment Viaduct Arches, Zurich
Auszeichnung für Gute Bauten der City of
Zurich (and Audience Prize), City of Zurich
Refurbishment Viaduct Arches, Zurich
Anerkennung Umsicht Award 11
Conversion Rosenberg, Winterthur, bestarchitects ’11
Selected Exhibitions
2013 –2014
Daniel Niggli, Dipl. Arch ETH SIA BSA
2010 –2014
2008 –2012
2009 –2011
2005
2004
Since 1997
1996
1993
1990 –1996
1970 –1990
1970
Member Baukollegium Zurich
Member Baukollegium Berlin
Visiting Professor ETH Zurich
Visiting Professor EPF Lausanne
Swiss Art Award in Architecture
EM2N Architekten ETH / SIA
Thesis Prof. Adrian Meyer / Prof. Marcel
Meili, ETH Zurich
Exchange student Rhode Island School
of Design, Providence, RI, USA
Studies in architecture at the ETH Zurich
raised in Trimbach, Switzerland
born in Olten, Switzerland
Mathias Müller, Dipl. Arch ETH SIA BSA
2009 –2011
2005
2004
Since 1997
1996
1990 –1996
1987 –1989
1980 –1986
1966 –1980
1966
Visiting Professor ETH Zurich
Visiting Professor EPF Lausanne
Swiss Art Award in Architecture
EM2N Architekten ETH / SIA
Thesis Prof. Adrian Meyer / Prof. Marcel
Meili, ETH Zurich
Studies in architecture at the ETH Zurich
Studies in Olympia, WA, USA
raised in Zurich
raised in Nuremberg, Germany
born in Zurich, Switzerland
Björn Rimner (*1978), Dipl. Ing. Arch.
Since 2013
2006
Associate at EM2N, Zurich
Joined EM2N, Zurich
Christof Zollinger (*1973), Arch. HTL
Since 2005 Associate at EM2N, Zurich
1999
Joined EM2N, Zurich
Bernd Druffel (*1972), Dipl. Ing. Arch. FH
Since 2006 Associate at EM2N, Zurich
2002
Joined EM2N, Zurich
Fabian Hörmann (*1978), Dipl. Ing. Arch. FH
Since 2009 Associate at EM2N, Zurich
2004
Joined EM2N, Zurich
Marc Holle (*1973), Dipl. Arch. ETH
2005 –2014
2001
Associate at EM2N, Zurich
Joined EM2N, Zurich
Gerry Schwyter (*1975), Dipl. Arch. FH
Since 2008 Associate at EM2N, Zurich
2006
Joined EM2N, Zurich
Swiss positions – 33 takes on sustainable
architecture, travelling exhibition
2011 Arch Cities, Architecture Week Prague
2011, Prag
EM2N Exhibition, Institute gta, ETH Zurich
2009
EM2N – same same but different,
Architektur Galerie, Berlin
ARCH / SCAPES, 7th International Biennial
2007
of Architecture, São Paulo
Swiss Shapes, Architekturforum, Berlin
2006
Swiss Section, Van Alen Institute, New York
2003 Contact
EM2N | Mathias Müller | Daniel Niggli
Architekten AG | ETH | SIA | BSA
Josefstrasse 92
CH – 8005 Zürich
T + 41 44 215 60 10
F + 41 44 215 60 11
em2n@em2n.ch
http://www.em2n.ch
Media enquiries
T + 41 44 215 60 38
caroline.vogel@em2n.ch
2
Production and Administration
Complex Medela, Perlen, Switzerland
Heuried Sports Centre, Ice Sport Hall,
Zurich, Switzerland
Lucerne University, School of Design
and Art, Emmenbrücke, Switzerland
Commission competition
Dates competition 2013 (1st prize), ongoing
Size 40,280 m2
Costs –
Client Avair AG
Commission competition
Dates competition 2011–2012 (1st prize), planning 2012 –
2017, ongoing
Size 9,187 m2
Costs CHF 77.7 Mio.
Client City of Zurich
Commission direct commission
Dates commission 2013, planning 2013 –2015, ongoing
Size 13,000 m2
Costs CHF 24 Mio.
Client Monosuisse AG
The master plan takes up the characteristic parallel morphology of the location. All the functions are organized
in parallel strips. Consideration of the heterogeneous
surroundings led to placing the largest volume, the
production building, in the middle of the site. The basic
organization and structure of the production building establishes optimal relationships between routes, simple
basic geometries and a compact volume. Together with
the parkland surrounding it the round administration building, placed at the front of the complex, functions as a filter. The external appearance is kept plain, the translucent
materials used give the façade depth.
Heuried Sports Centre combines very different functions,
yet the complex still lacks a face of its own. A large roof
will give the sports centre an address and a framework.
Beneath it the various functions are differentiated. The
building’s considerable volume reflects the size of the
spatial program. The hovering roof and the vertical tectonics of the facade nevertheless give a certain lightness to
the overall appearance. Towards the open-air swimming
pools the building opens to the lawn by means of terraces
and generously dimensioned flights of steps. As a whole
the architecture consciously refers to Zurich’s tradition
of public baths.
On the former industrial site of the Monosuisse Company in Emmenbrücke a new urban district, known as the
Viscosicity, is to be created in the near future. First of all
Building 745 will be converted for the University of Design
and Art. The main entrance is from the east, the façade of
high-bay warehouse on the west will be stripped open to
create a connection to the riverside park. The open ground
floor strengthens the university building’s connection to
the park. This is a zone where the public and the university
meet, and plays a central role in developing and introducing life into the entire site.
Selected projects
in chronological order
3
Housing Riedpark, Zug, Switzerland
Headquarters ROSHEN Confectionery
Corporation, Kiev, Ukraine
Cinémathèque suisse, Penthaz,
Switzerland
Int. Centre for Competitive and Popular Sports, Winterthur, Switzerland
Commission competition
Dates competition 2006 (1st prize), planning 2007–2016,
construction 2008 –2011 (1st phase ), 2011–2014 (2nd
phase), ongoing (3rd phase)
Size 35,900 m2
Costs CHF 100 Mio.
Client Hammer Retex AG
Commission study commission
Dates commission 2012, planning 2012, ongoing
Size 8,000 m2
Costs –
Client Architectural Bureau Zotov & Co Ltd., Kiev
Commission competition
Dates competition 2007 (1st prize), Planning 2007–2010,
Construction 2010 –2012 (1st phase), 2013 –2015 (2nd
phase), ongoing
Size 13,254 m2
Costs CHF 49.5 Mio.
Client Bundesamt für Bauten und Logistik BBL
Commission competition
Dates competition 2009 –2010 (1st prize), planning 2010,
ongoing
Size 33,750 m2
Costs –
Client City of Winterthur, befair partners ag
The Riedpark housing development is more than a
housing estate; it is, in fact, a new urban district with a
strongly defined character. Instead of monotonous rows
a large meander is used here that creates clearly differentiated outdoor spaces with hard surfaces or green garden
courtyards. While the facades to the access courtyard are
more urban and cubic in design, on the side facing the
park the apartments open to the green space through
generously dimensioned balconies. The meander is broken up into individual building volumes, there are four
different building types offering a variety of floor plans.
The future Roshen Chocolate Factory is envisioned to
become not only a place of production but also a public
venue. The new headquarter tries to work with industrial
typologies and further develop them into new prototypes.
At the same time, the new building should clearly signal
Roshen’s start into a new era. The large-spanned industrial hall and the vertical tower are both typologies that
are found in industrial areas. By a series of design steps
and manipulations they are adapted to the site and to the
intended program in order to finally become an innovative
new prototype, specific to Roshen and to Kiev.
In the extension to the national film archive the structure
of the existing buildings arranged in a linear relationship
to each other is translated by means of additions and remodeling into an ambivalent form of parallel volumes of
different length. The archive itself is designed as an underground storage space that provides the best possible
protection for the culturally valuable artifacts. This disposition reacts to the expansiveness of the neighboring landscape of farmland and gives the institution a very clear address. A shell of rusting steel encases the entire complex
and binds the new and the existing parts together.
4
Housing GreenCity, Building Site A,
Zurich, Switzerland
Housing amRietpark, Building Site C,
Schlieren, Switzerland
Stapferhaus Lenzburg, Haus der
Gegenwart, Lenzburg, Switzerland
Campus RTS, Ecublens, Switzerland
Commission competition
Dates competition 2011–2012 (1st prize), ongoing
Size 12,000 m2
Costs –
Client Losinger Marazzi AG
Commission study commission
Dates study commission 2008 (1st part), study commission 2010 (2nd part), planning 2010 –2013, construction
2012–2015
Size 39,150 m2
Costs –
Client Halter Entwicklungen AG, Priora GU AG
Commission competition
Dates competition 2014 –2015 (2nd prize)
Size 4,600 m2
Costs –
Client Stiftung Stapferhaus Lenzburg
Commission competition
Dates competition 2014
Size 18,000 m2
Costs –
Client Radio Télévision Suisse RTS
The elongated plot A forms the start to the new urban district ‘GreenCity.Zürich’ and its character is largely shaped
by the neighbouring street and railway line. We developed
a long narrow building for it with an expressive character
that creates a sense of identity. This leads to mostly eastwest facing apartments, all of which are connected by a
‘street in the air’ to the communal space and the shared
roof garden. The gridded facade defines the long building
volume, emphasising its sculptural character. The motif
of interwoven vertical and horizontal bands creates depth
and a feeling of volume. The commercially used ground
floor takes up the robust nature of the street and railway
line and is made as a concrete plinth.
In the constellation as an integral part of the university
campus the new building can be read in different ways:
on the hand as a mediator and on the other as an objectlike, free-standing building. The volume is manipulated
by means of two parallel cuts so that a relationship to the
respective context is established on all sides. The editorial
offices with studios, the administration, and the restaurant facilities are distributed on three floors. The radically
open spatial landscape is made up of work platforms that
are layered above each other in different configurations
so that they create a terraced interior. At the same time
the aim is to give the RTS headquarters a strongly public
character.
5
Zwicky Site, Plots A6-A9, Wallisellen,
Switzerland
Toni-Areal, Zurich, Switzerland
Swiss Dance and Textile College, Wasserwerkstrasse, Zurich, Switzerland
Conversion Hammergut, Cham,
Switzerland
Commission competition
Dates competition 2014 (2nd prize)
Size 16,000 m2
Costs –
Client Halter AG
Commission study commission
Dates study commission 2005 (1st prize), planning
2005 –2011, construction 2008 –2014
Size 125,000 m2
Costs CHF 547 Mio.
Client Allreal Toni AG, represented by Allreal Generalunternehmung AG
Commission competition
Dates competition 2014 (2nd prize)
Size 2,086 m2
Costs –
Client City of Zurich
Commission competition
Dates competition 2015 (1st prize), planning 2009 –2013,
construction 2011–2014
Size 7,000 m2
Costs CHF 27 Mio.
Client Hammer Retex AG
The aim of the conversion of the large former milk processing building into a location for education, culture and
housing was to formulate a concept for a building that is
almost the size of an entire urban block. Our design suggested dealing with the size of the project by means of a
kind of internal urbanism. A wide range of extremely different spaces is created, extending from functional public
halls and circulation spaces to intimate rehearsal cabinets:
the building as city, the city as building. To create diversity
and variety the architecture works with various degrees
of refinement.
The old Hammer estate is a powerful ensemble that has
developed over the course of 150 years. The strongly orthogonal primary structure has always provided the basis
for the successful integration of new buildings. This is
also the point at which the present conversion begins. The
aim is to achieve an atmospherically condensed ensemble. Each of the new buildings has an independent floor
plan typology and augments the existing heterogeneous
system. The old buildings are converted by means of wellconsidered interventions. A lively mix of spaces for work
and living remains the trade mark of this farm estate.
6
Lindt Chocolate Competence Center,
Kilchberg, Switzerland
Extension Herdern Railway Service
Facility, Zurich, Switzerland
Main Base Zugerland Verkehrsbetriebe AG, Zug, Switzerland
Lucerne University, Department of
Music, Kriens, Switzerland
Commission study commission
Dates study commission 2013 –2014
Size 34,800 m2
Costs –
Client Lindt Chocolate Competence Foundation
Commission fee proposal with sketch design
Dates commission 2009, planning 2009–2010,
construction 2012–2013
Size 13,000 m2
Costs CHF 70 Mio.
Client Swiss Federal Railways SBB
Commission competition
Dates competition 2013
Size 21,000 m2
Costs –
Client Canton of Zug, Zugerland Verkehrsbetriebe
Commission competition
Dates competition 2013
Size 9,000 m2
Costs –
Client Luzerner Pensionskasse
The intention is to extend the original headquarters of the
established chocolate factory by adding a new building
and to present its traditions and history to visitors. This
can only be authentic if the existing is expanded to create
a new entity. We attempt to develop the new building out
of the existing fabric by inserting an exciting composition of four differentiated building parts in the topography.
In each of the building blocks, which differ in height and
size, the basic structure responds to the planned function.
According to the future function of each building the facade is either more expressive or more restrained — but is
always an abstract arrangement of surfaces.
Through its central position next to the rapidly developing
neighborhood of Zurich-West and by virtue of its sheer
size, the new maintenance facility aquires great urbanistic significance. At the start many design decisions had
already been taken – the competition task was to find an
economically feasible and at the same time architecturally satisfying solution. We decided to concentrate on
the southern façade. The curvature of the fiber cement
elements frees the endless façade from its flat monotony
and renders a play of light and shadow. Both ends of the
service hall with their huge entrance doors are treated as
cuts, where the spatial façade is cut flat.
With the new main base the Canton makes a clear commitment to the future of public local transport. Within the
restricted room for manoeuvre we propose an innovative building concept. The two basement levels extend
to the site boundaries and are used primarily for parking
the buses. The seven-metre-high ground floor is broken
up by four cores to create three workshops. A two-storey
volume containing the office spaces hovers above this
concrete plinth and cantilevers outwards on all sides. The
offices open to ‘climate gardens’ along the outside of the
building. A kind of permeable and breathing outer layer,
they form the façade of the building.
7
V-Zug Site Masterplan, Zug,
Switzerland
Headquarters Sedorama AG,
Schönbühl, Switzerland
Housing Neufrankengasse, Zurich,
Switzerland
Housing Rue Rebière, Paris, France
Commission study commission
Dates study commission 2013
Size 80,000 m2
Costs –
Client Zug Estates AG
Commission direct commission
Dates commission 2011, planning 2011–2013,
construction 2012–2013
Size 1,970 m2
Costs CHF 5.2 Mio.
Client Sedorama-Immobilien AG
Commission competition
Dates competition 2008 (1st prize), planning 2009 –2011,
construction 2011–2013
Size 5,800 m2
Costs CHF 28.9 Mio.
Client SBB Immobilien
Commission direct commission
Dates commission 2006, planning 2006 –2010,
construction 2010 –2012
Size 1,500 m2
Costs CHF 3.3 Mio.
Client Paris Habitat OPH
By erecting its Swiss headquarters directly on the A1 Sedorama dares to step onto the big stage. The building positions itself at an exciting interface between a utilitarian,
functional architecture and its role as headquarters and
eye-catcher. The new headquarters is slightly concave on
both long sides and thus turns towards the passing traffic
while also creating an arrivals area on the car park side.
Inside visitors are surprised by a stepped cascade that
extends the entire height of the building. All the surfaces
are either left in their original state or painted white. This
powerful, neutral background forms the stage for the exciting presentation of the products.
The project is developed out of its exciting location between two extremes: the inner city Kreis 4 and an expansive area of railway tracks. The layered structure of the
building responds to the external situation. Bedrooms and
loggias face southwards towards the quiet courtyard. The
entrance halls, wet rooms and cloakrooms are centrally
positioned. Living and dining areas profit from the expansive nature of the area of railway tracks. The architectural
expression presents the internal structure. Towards the
wide area of tracks large window openings permeate the
appearance of the façade; whereas towards the courtyard
a calm façade with repetitive openings is made.
In the context of upgrading Porte Pouchet 18 construction
plots were distributed. We were interested in the acute
angled plots 17 and 18, not just on account of the building volumes, which, given the shape of the site, would
clearly be very expressive, but also because of the spaces
between the buildings. By means of cutting and adding
the building volumes were given a crystalline form and
enclose a planted approach courtyard. We expressively
exaggerated the only unregulated areas, the balconies. In
a reference to Adolf Loos’ project for the Josephine Baker
House from 1928 the façade is striped. We achieved this
connecting striped effect with the use of expanded metal.
8
Ozeanium Zoo Basel, Basel,
Switzerland
Ice Hockey and Volleyball Arena
ZSC & Volero, Zurich, Switzerland
Affoltern Housing Development,
Zurich, Switzerland
Keystone Office Building, Prague,
Czech Republic
Commission competition
Dates competition 2012
Size 13,000 m2
Costs –
Client Zoologischer Garten Basel AG
Commission competition
Dates competition 2012 (4th prize)
Size 73,600 m2
Costs –
Client City of Zurich
Commission competition
Dates competition 2005 (1st prize), planning 2005 –2010,
construction 2008 –2012
Size 29,967 m2
Costs CHF 64.7 Mio.
Client Baugenossenschaft Frohheim
Commission direct commission
Dates commission 2007, planning 2008 –2010,
construction 2010 –2012
Size 11,600 m2
Costs CHF 24 Mio.
Client Real Estate Karlín Group a.s.
The dynamic volume of the new Ozeanium takes its scale
from the topography of the curving River Birsig valley.
A double cantilever towards the city creates a reception
area, towards the Birsig the building is transformed into
a landscape of terraces. The composition of stacked volumes gives the building a minimal footprint. Undulating
glass elements encase the building and break the light,
like a ruffled area of water. Everything that, in reality, takes
place under water is to be found in the underground aquaria. This creates a contrast to the exhibition spaces and
outdoor terraces above ground level, where animals that
live in the water and on land are kept.
The new stadium is inserted in a natural but self-confident
way in the series of large commercial buildings. A robust
concrete plinth anchors it between the railway tracks,
motorway and allotment gardens. The entrance area is
cut out of one of the corners of the plinth. A broad flight
of steps leads directly up to the public city terrace which
offers an expansive view of the Limmattal. The main elements volleyball arena, ice hockey arena, and training hall
are combined within the form of the building. A veil of
perforated and folded chrome steel is laid over the building like a tablecloth. It gives the large volumes a certain
porosity and unifies the different functions.
This development uses different heights to respond to the
surrounding buildings in Zurich-Affoltern. Towards the
road the buildings are connected at ground floor level to
form an urban plinth and in this way protect the buildings
behind from street noise. The positions of the large projecting balconies (which also have recessed areas) are
staggered from floor to floor and thus sculpture the volume of the building. Together with the coloured parapets
and metallic bands of windows they help structure the
buildings and shape the character of the development.
This office building stands at a kind of gateway situation
at a prominent situation in Karlín, a district of Prague that
is undergoing rapid change. The ground floor, taller than
the other levels, contains shops and showrooms while the
upper floors are occupied by office space. The external
appearance of the building takes up geometrical themes
found in Czech Cubism at the start of the 20th century. The
volumetric concept of the façade creates an ambivalently
legible network of forms oriented in different directions.
The double-layered façade not only produces a sculptural
outer skin, but also improves the performance of the windows in thermal and acoustic insulation.
9
Europaallee, Building Site F, Zurich,
Switzerland
Mongolian School Project, Ordos,
Inner Mongolia, China
Extension Bündner Kunstmuseum,
Chur, Switzerland
Musée Cantonale des Beaux-Arts
MCBA, Lausanne, Switzerland
Commission competition
Dates competition 2012 (2nd prize)
Size 35,000 m2
Costs –
Client SBB Immobilien Development AG
Commission invited competition
Dates competition 2008 (1st prize), planning 2008 –2010,
construction 2010–2012
Size 99,000 m2
Costs CHF 60 Mio.
Client City of Ordos
Commission competition
Dates competition 2012 (2nd prize)
Size 3,461 m2
Costs –
Client Canton of Graubünden
Commission competition
Dates competition 2011 (4th prize)
Size 12,500 m2
Costs –
Client Canton of Waadt
Europaallee is characterised by large scale urban blocks
with a number of high-points. Our project takes up the
eaves lines and staggered heights of the surrounding
projects and meshes the urban parts with three taller
buildings of different heights to form a new entity. The
new building is intended to stand in the city and create
clear addresses. Its independent appearance is shaped
by a finely weighted, net-like mesh of differently coloured glasses. The staggered depths and the way light is
fractured play a lively graphic game. The large proportion
of housing called for and the shape of the site offer ideas
conditions for a diversified mix of apartment types.
The boarding school for 3000 pupils is to be created on
the edge of the new city of Ordos. We see the project as
a small city within the city. With its combination of a lowrise high-density mesh in the peripheral areas and taller,
more prominent buildings at the centre, the complex refers to and adapts themes of traditional Chinese urban
planning. The school is divided into a number of districts
by the squares. Each school and each residential area is
differentiated typologically to create optimal living and
learning conditions. The inner spatial figure opens the
school to the city and invites to appropriate the school
grounds as public space.
In extending the Kunstmuseum the Villa Planta was to
retain its formative role. Yet on the other hand the extension was to assert its independence and, additionally, to
be legible as a new entrance. It achieves this balancing
act by a form that is incised at the corners. The dramatically elevated silhouette makes clear that this is not just
an addition. The set-back hollows made by the volumetric
incisions create a strong sculptural statement that invites
visitors to approach closer and establishes a relationship
to the reactivated historic main approach to the site. At the
same time the stepped form of the building produces a
restrained volume that responds to the sensitive context.
The new museum is at a fantastic location on one of the
most public places in Lausanne. It connects with the Place
de la Gare to form a large terrace. Proximity of this kind
between an infrastructural and a cultural centre presents
chances. The ‘Espace projet’ becomes an interface space
– it is entrance, exhibition area and public space at one
and the same time. The existing hall with its powerful spatial disposition formed the starting point for a new building. This is a building resting on a building. The formal
strength of the new building is unimaginable without that
of the old one. Past and present are inscribed as a plinth
that yet also appears as an independent building.
10
Monosuisse Site, Emmenbrücke,
Switzerland
Housing Im Forster, Zurich, Switzerland
University Campus FHNW, Muttenz,
Switzerland
Culture and Congress Centre, Thun,
Switzerland
Commission study commission
Dates commission 2011 (1st prize), ongoing
Size 90,000 m2
Costs –
Client Monosuisse AG
Commission competition
Dates competition 2004 (1st prize), planning 2007–2010,
construction 2009 –2011
Size 5,952 m2
Costs –
Client private
Commission competition
Dates competition 2011 (recognition)
Size 34,250 m2
Costs –
Client Canton of Basel-Landschaft
Commission study
Dates competition 2005 (1st prize), planning 2005 –2009,
construction 2009 –2011
Size 6,400 m2
Costs CHF 24 Mio.
Client City of Thun
Emmen, which in just a few decades grew from a farming
village into a town, still remains an agglomeration without
an old town or a centre. Converting the old Monosuisse
site on the River Emme now offers a chance to give the
town a real centre. The industrial conglomerate, a town
in town, has impressive existing buildings. Different volumes, facades and typologies created truly urban spaces
with different qualities. The project is based on four main
theses: 1. Activating and linking programmatically, 2. Bringing the town to the river, 3. Strengthening the urban quality of the site, 4. Further expanding the existing diversity
of buildings.
The five building areas in the park complex ‘Im Forster’
are positioned so as to ensure optimum preservation of
the parkland. The building lot ‘Gärtnerei’ stands in an
atmospheric clearing, characterised by tall trees in the
south and filter-like planting towards the former tennis
court. The L-shaped building creates an arrivals area on
the street side and a garden space on the park front that
guarantees all the apartments breadth and openness. The
white-clad building stands on an exposed concrete plinth.
The apartments are of very different kinds, depending on
their position they face in two or three directions or have
taller rooms extending into the roof.
The term ‘campus’ is generally associated with urban locations where research, learning, culture and housing are
combined in a vibrant mix. We read the building itself as
an urban place, a small city, a vertically condensed campus, and articulated into individually identifiable ‘quarters’. A system of internal squares, streets and lanes gives
each function a clear address. The ‘buildings’ standing
along the internal sequence of spaces develop internal facades, the campus becomes permeable. By incising courtyards spaces of different depths are created. The principle
means of expression are the load-bearing structure and
facade grid, as well as the overall geometry.
Upgrading the town meeting hall into a culture and congress centre posed two major challenges. The restrictive
general framework of the project and the question of how
to deal architecturally with the existing building from the
1980s. The extension should condense the complex in
both spatial and programmatic terms and strengthen its
public character. As the strategic use of resources was
essential, we reduced the interventions in the existing fabric to a minimum, leaving the meeting hall ‘untouched’.
Alongside it a new, functionally neutral hall was placed.
The new foyer and the existing one combine to form a
richly modulated spatial figure.
11
School Complex Blumenfeld, Zurich,
Switzerland
Refurbishment Viaduct Arches, Zurich,
Switzerland
Hotel City Garden, Zug, Switzerland
Conversion Rosenberg, Winterthur,
Switzerland
Commission competition
Dates competition 2011 (3rd prize)
Size 10,051 m2
Costs –
Client City of Zurich
Commission competition
Dates competition 2004 (1st prize), planning 2005 –2008,
construction 2008 –2010
Size 9,008 m2
Costs CHF 35.3 Mio.
Client Foundation PWG
Commission study commission
Dates commission 2008, planning 2008 –2009,
construction 2009
Size 4,368 m2
Costs CHF 18 Mio.
Client MZ-Immobilien AG
Commission direct commission
Dates commission 2008, planning 2008 –2009,
construction 2009 –2010
Size 1,280 m2
Costs CHF 3.2 Mio.
Client DN2M Projektentwicklung AG
School buildings have an important role to play, both as
district centers and fixed points in urban design. With its
terracing the complex becomes a large-scale deposition.
The new school is connected with the district on all side.
The staircase hall serves as a symbolic node in this network. The issue is to erect buildings that prove their worth
in the long term. With their neutral structural grids, high
spaces and high load-bearing capacity, industrial buildings can accommodate new functions without requiring
major changes and provide a generosity. A column-slab
structure with tall storey heights and considerable building depth forms a flexible spatial system.
The viaduct originally used as a railway line, had to be
formed in a linear park that will be part of a culture and
leisure mile. This initiated two decisive urban impulses:
The viaduct as a spatial barrier becomes a linking structure and the outdoor spaces bordering it are upgraded.
We viewed the ambivalence of a large-scale connecting
machine and a linear building as a fundamental quality
and used it as the architectural leitmotiv to connect the
new uses with the viaduct structure. The characteristic
Cyclopean masonry forms the central atmospheric element. The new structures are deliberately restrained so
as to emphasise the existing arches.
The task was to erect a temporary four-star hotel building on a public site that in 15 years will be used for a road
building project. We developed this project from the serial character of hotel buildings. The standard layout of
bedrooms next to each other was transformed into an
expressive building volume by swivelling the module. The
sculptural facade corresponds with an internal corridor
figure; the building is given a head and an end. The idyllic
location led to the idea of a facade of polished chrome
steel. The facetted building volume mirrors its natural surroundings and transforms the place into a kaleidoscope
of building and nature.
A supermarket erected in 1961 was converted into five architecturally ambitious ‘hall houses’. The original volume
was retained and extended by adding a new recessed storey on the roof. The kitchens, dining and living areas of
the five houses were created out of the former sales area
with its ceiling height of four meters. A complex spatial
system with split-levels and individual access to the roof
was developed around the hall-like living space. The existing building fabric has been preserved for the most part.
Inside the changing mood of the light and the visual relationships between the different levels produce a unique
kind of living situation.
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Conversion Habsburgstrasse, Zurich,
Switzerland
Hardbrücke Railway Station Upgrading,
Zurich, Switzerland
Mortuary Hall, Erlenbach, Switzerland
Rivergardens Z3, Prague,
Czech Republic
Commission study commission
Dates commission 2007, planning 2007–2010,
construction 2009 –2010
Size 5,800 m2
Costs CHF 20 Mio.
Client Beat Odinga AG
Commission competition
Dates competition 2004 (1st prize), construction
2005 –2007
Size 5,650 m2
Costs CHF 3.35 Mio.
Client City of Zurich
Commission competition
Dates competition 2007 (2nd prize)
Size 150 m2
Costs –
Client Municipality of Erlenbach
Commission competition
Dates competition 2005 (1st prize), planning 2005,
ongoing
Size 12,500 m2
Costs CHF 16.6 Mio.
Client Real Estate Karlín Group a. s.
The conversion profits from the bulkiness of the existing
building. The considerable ceiling heights make it possible
to provide light for building depths of up to 24 metres and
to create generously sized spaces. A new second staircase
makes the existing circulation into a collective spatial figure with a specific form that creates internal addresses.
A 3D puzzle made up of interlocking single-storey apartments and maisonettes is created between the façade and
the circulation system. Each apartment reacts specifically
to its position in the building. Artist Jörg Niederberger
uses colour to ‘stage’ this internal circulation figure. The
building meets the Minergie P standard.
By means of selective interventions we attempted to give
the station a new identity, to make it easier to find your
way around and to increase the attractiveness of the front
area. On two levels the railway is anchored in the urban
fabric by means of large illuminated panels. The spaces
inside the station were ‘tidied up’. They were given a clear
visual appearance that orders the spaces and makes orientation easier. The colours and signs are derived from
the corporate design of the Swiss Federal Railways. The
area in front of the entrance ramp beneath the bridge was
reformulated as a generously dimensioned railway station concourse.
In this project we divided the spaces into two interventions. A space-containing wall accommodates the maintaining functions. The mortuary proper is, in contrast, a
freestanding building in the cemetery. Together with the
wall, it sets up an entrance and deliveries area. The mortuary consists of several buildings that lean against each
other. The individual elements both refer to and determine each other. The path taken by the mourners leads
from the roofed forecourt, which opens towards the lake
at one short end, across the enclosed visitors room to the
intimate and self-composed space where the body of the
deceased person is laid out.
The site is in a prime location on Thámova Street in Prague, between a generously sized courtyard and the banks
of the River Vltava. The goal is to exploit the characteristic
location and to give as many apartments as possible a
view of the landscape along the river. This means that
most apartments face north-south. We interpreted the attic storey stipulated in the development plan as a loosely
broken-up level rather than a recessed top floor. A step
of half a level in section creates a staggered cut figure
that gives the façades their character and creates a kind
of saw-tooth silhouette. In this way the structure of the
building directly becomes its façade.
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Theater 11, Zurich, Switzerland
Extension Funkwiesenstrasse, Zurich,
Switzerland
Extension Gross House, Greifensee,
Switzerland
Hardau Schools, Zurich, Switzerland
Commission competition
Dates competition 2003 (1st prize), planning 2003 –2005,
construction 2005 –2006
Size 9,188 m2
Costs CHF 27.2 Mio.
Client MCH Messe Zürich AG
Commission direct commission
Dates commission 2003, construction 2007–2009
Size 30 m2 (extension)
Costs –
Client private
Commission direct commission
Dates commission 2003, planning 2003 –2004,
construction 2004 –2008 (two phases)
Size 67 m2 (new building), 127 m2 (conversion)
Costs –
Client private
Commission competition
Dates competition 2002 (1st prize), planning 2002 –2004,
construction 2004 –2005
Size 2,476 m2 (Vocational), 2,334 m2 (Primary)
Costs CHF 15.7 Mio. (Voc.), CHF 14.6 Mio. (Prim.)
Client City of Zurich
The refurbishment of a theatre building required an additional 700 seats and a larger foyer. This gave the starting point for a radical transformation of the existing substance into a contemporary musical theatre. Our project
‘cannibalises’ existing elements such as the basement and
the fly tower. The new volume reacts in a differentiated
way to the various scales of the urban context. During
the day the façade of standing-seam perforated metal is
reminiscent of industrial buildings. At night the windows
behind the translucent membrane begin to glow, transforming the building into an artificial lantern. The activities inside are conveyed outside by large ‘eyes’.
The client wished to make better use of the large garden
on his site. We designed a garden pavilion as an extension to the living area. The accessible roof of this pavilion
serves as a terrace. For an abstract effect we deliberately
restricted the number of materials used. The design of the
surroundings was included in the project from the very
beginning. The seating area in the garden, the flowerbed
and the pool produce in conjunction with the small building a powerful and independent ensemble. The house, the
trees and the seasons are reflected in the areas of glass
and water; at times the pavilion seems almost to dissolve
in the dialogue with its setting.
The use of space in this 1960s development of single-storey row houses seems wasteful. As, according to the regulations, underground buildings do not count as utilization
of space, we created an underground patio house as a
kind of ‘second house’. Whereas the two courtyards are
sharply incised in the garden, the two new bedrooms and
a bathroom are attached to the existing basement. The
existing hobby room was converted to a third bed-room
and a former crawl space into a home cinema. This gain
of space allowed two ground floor rooms to be opened
up. It is only now that this house responds to its privileged
situation as the end building in a row.
Two neighbouring schools designed by Otto Glaus, from
the 1960s and the 1980s were to be extended. The co-existence and interpenetration of essentially very different
urban fragments makes the perimeter into an exciting but
difficult part of the city that is characterised by strong contrasts. We attempted not to sugar-coat this place, but to
develop the thinking behind it further. The area is opened
up and connected internally by means of a meandering
public park. The existing building fragments were augmented by employing specific tailor-made measures, their
spatial presence is strengthened and they are connected
to the new outdoor space.
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Holiday Home, Flumserberg,
Switzerland
Public Record Office Basel-Landschaft,
Liestal, Switzerland
Community Centre Aussersihl, Zurich,
Switzerland
Hegianwandweg Housing Development, Zurich, Switzerland
Commission direct commission
Dates commission 2002, construction 2003
Size 183 m2
Costs –
Client private
Commission competition
Dates competition 2000 (1st prize), planning 2001–2007,
construction 2005 –2007
Size 4,705 m2
Costs CHF 15.4 Mio.
Client Canton of Basel-Landschaft
Commission competition
Dates competition 1999 (1st prize), planning 2002 –2003,
construction 2003 –2004
Size 866 m2
Costs CHF 3.0 Mio.
Client City of Zurich
Commission competition
Dates competition 1998 (1st prize), planning 2000 –2002,
construction 2002 –2003
Size 14,404 m2
Costs CHF 32.8 Mio.
Client Familiengenossenschaft Zürich
Most holiday houses look the same and the site’s specific
character is seldom taken into. Our design relates to the
wonderful place, adjacent to an alpine field. The house
rises vertically in order to capture the spectacular views.
The meadow around the building is left undisturbed, no
garden design alters the appearance of the place. On the
exterior, the house variegates the omnipresent chalet
theme with its dark wood cladding and small window
openings creating the image of a chalet tower with huge
panorama windows. As an antithesis to living in separate
rooms we developed our design from the hypothesis of
a single-room house.
The current location of the existing office, cut off from
the town, hardly allows the public character of the institution to be expressed. We interpreted the need to double
the amount of space as a chance to translate the existing
building into a powerful, self-confident form. We added
an additional storey to the archive wing. Consequently the
spatial programme is no longer organized horizontally but
vertically. By placing the public zone on the second floor
the visitors’ area is lifted out of the cramped topography.
In the form of a glazed roof volume the new public zone
now engages the urban district of Liestal, which lies on
the far side of the railway line embankment.
After the budget was reduced by 45% the amount of usable floor area was reduced by only 25%, which meant
radically cutting building costs: strategic minimalism! A
basic structure, enhanced at specific points, now offers
space for diverse activities. The building still blends in the
park by its form and colour. Lime sand brick is the cheapest material to build curved walls. With the radical use
of colour we ‘killed’ the somewhat out-of-date material
so that only colour and form remains. Starting from the
image of tree bark, the façade is perforated and tattooed.
A skin is generated which exceeds the image of a ‘Lochfassade’, creates depths and relates to the environment.
We tend to understand community more as a possibility than a constraint. It is given spatial expression in the
carefully worked out sequence of public to private spaces. Interface spaces, such as entrance halls to buildings,
apartment entrances and balconies, are concentrated in
terms of both atmosphere and programme. We worked at
creating a kind of architecture that defines spatial qualities
and is yet open to individual appropriation and programmatic changes. The development is laid over the former
allotment gardens and brings its own outdoor spaces with
it. The positioning of the volumes creates both extreme
closeness and a spatial depth.
15