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We aim to produce architecture that<br />

is powerful and personal, architecture<br />

with the capability of developing its<br />

own character. As a result our projects<br />

may polarize the public, which is fine<br />

with us. One may love or hate our architecture,<br />

but one should never be left<br />

indifferent.<br />

As post-idealistic children of the 1968-<br />

generation, we do not recognise a<br />

single great truth, but find in the fractures<br />

of real ity a ground in which to anchor<br />

architecture. This is the radicalism<br />

that we derived from Venturi’s ‘bothand’<br />

principle. But both-and should not<br />

be mistaken as being arbitrary or indecisive.<br />

Behind and within it lies the<br />

problematic recognition of equitable<br />

values, and a longing for an architecture<br />

that renounces all dogma, opening itself<br />

to the freedom of possibility.<br />

1


<strong>EM2N</strong> with Mathias Müller (*1966) and<br />

Daniel Niggli (*1970) has 60 collaborators<br />

working on construction and<br />

competition projects in Switzerland<br />

and abroad. In addition to a number of<br />

awards including ‘bestarchitects’, ‘Umsicht-Regards-Sguardi’,<br />

the ‘Auszeichnung<br />

Guter Bauten’ from the City of<br />

Zurich, the Canton of Basel-Stadt and<br />

Basel-Landschaft, they received the<br />

‘Swiss Art Awards’ in Architecture.<br />

Mathias Müller and Daniel Niggli were<br />

visiting professors at the Swiss Federal<br />

Institute of Technology in Lausanne,<br />

as well as in Zurich. Daniel Niggli is a<br />

member of the construction commitees<br />

in Berlin and Zurich.<br />

ATheir<br />

important recent construction<br />

projects include the Keystone Office<br />

Building Prag (2012), the Culture and<br />

Congress Centre Thun (2011), ‘Im<br />

Viadukt’– Refurbishment of the viaduct<br />

arches in Zurich (2010), the Hotel City<br />

Garden in Zug (2009) and the expansion<br />

of the Public Record Office Basel-<br />

Landschaft in Liestal (2007). Planning<br />

and construction work has started on,<br />

among other projects, the new campus<br />

for the University of Applied Sciences<br />

and Arts at the Toni Site in Zurich<br />

(since 2006), the Swiss Film Archive<br />

in Penthaz (since 2007), the Housing<br />

Riedpark in Zug (since 2008) as well as<br />

buildings in Ordos, Inner Mongolia.<br />

Biographies<br />

Principals<br />

Daniel Niggli, Dipl. Arch ETH SIA BSA<br />

2009 – 2011<br />

Since 2010<br />

Since 2008<br />

2005<br />

2004<br />

Since 1997<br />

1996<br />

1993<br />

1990 – 1996<br />

1970 – 1990<br />

1970<br />

Visiting Professor ETH Zurich<br />

Member Baukollegium Zurich<br />

Member Baukollegium Berlin<br />

Visiting Professor EPF Lausanne<br />

Swiss Art Awards in Architecture<br />

<strong>EM2N</strong> Architekten ETH / SIA<br />

Thesis Prof. Adrian Meyer / Prof. Marcel<br />

Meili, ETH Zurich<br />

Exchange student Rhode Island School<br />

of Design, Providence, RI, USA<br />

Studies in architecture at the ETH Zurich<br />

raised in Trimbach, Switzerland<br />

born in Olten, Switzerland<br />

Mathias Müller, Dipl. Arch ETH SIA BSA<br />

2009 – 2011<br />

2005<br />

2004<br />

Since 1997<br />

1996<br />

1990 – 1996<br />

1987 – 1989<br />

1980 – 1986<br />

1966 – 1980<br />

1966<br />

Visiting Professor ETH Zurich<br />

Visiting Professor EPF Lausanne<br />

Swiss Art Awards in Architecture<br />

<strong>EM2N</strong> Architekten ETH / SIA<br />

Thesis Prof. Adrian Meyer / Prof. Marcel<br />

Meili, ETH Zurich<br />

Studies in architecture at the ETH Zurich<br />

Studies in Olympia, WA, USA<br />

raised in Zurich<br />

raised in Nuremberg, Germany<br />

born in Zurich, Switzerland<br />

P<br />

Associates<br />

Marc Holle (*1973), Dipl. Arch. ETH<br />

Since 2005<br />

2001<br />

1999<br />

Associate at <strong>EM2N</strong>, Zurich<br />

Joined <strong>EM2N</strong>, Zurich<br />

Thesis ETH Zurich<br />

Gerry Schwyter (*1975), Dipl. Arch. FH<br />

Since 2008<br />

2006<br />

2001<br />

Since 2009<br />

2004<br />

2004<br />

Associate at <strong>EM2N</strong>, Zurich<br />

Joined <strong>EM2N</strong>, Zurich<br />

Thesis ZHW Winterthur<br />

Fabian Hörmann (*1978), Dipl. Ing. Arch. FH<br />

Associate at <strong>EM2N</strong>, Zurich<br />

Joined <strong>EM2N</strong>, Zurich<br />

Thesis HFT Stuttgart<br />

Bernd Druffel (*1972), Dipl. Ing. Arch. FH<br />

Since 2006<br />

2002<br />

2002<br />

Since 2005<br />

1999<br />

1998<br />

Associate at <strong>EM2N</strong>, Zurich<br />

Joined <strong>EM2N</strong>, Zurich<br />

Thesis FH Augsburg<br />

Christof Zollinger (*1973), Arch. HTL<br />

Associate at <strong>EM2N</strong>, Zurich<br />

Joined <strong>EM2N</strong>, Zurich<br />

Thesis HTL Winterthur<br />

Selected Awards<br />

2012<br />

2011<br />

2010<br />

2008<br />

2010<br />

2009<br />

2007<br />

2006<br />

2003<br />

Contact<br />

<strong>EM2N</strong> | Mathias Müller | Daniel Niggli<br />

Architekten AG | ETH | SIA | BSA<br />

Josefstrasse 92<br />

CH – 8005 Zürich<br />

T + 41 44 215 60 10<br />

F + 41 44 215 60 11<br />

em2n@em2n.ch<br />

http://www.em2n.ch<br />

Keystone Office Building, Prag; Refurbishment<br />

Viaduct Arches, Zurich; Culture and<br />

Congress Centre, Thun; bestarchitects ’13<br />

Refurbishment Viaduct Arches, Zurich<br />

Auszeichnung für Gute Bauten der Stadt<br />

Zürich (and Audience Prize), City of Zurich<br />

Refurbishment Viaduct Arches, Zurich<br />

Anerkennung Umsicht Award 11<br />

Conversion Rosenberg, Winterthur, bestarchitects<br />

’11<br />

Public Record Office Basel-Landschaft,<br />

Auszeichnung Guter Bauten 2002 – 2008,<br />

Canton Basel-Stadt and Basel-Landschaft<br />

Selected Exhibitions<br />

Building for Brussels,<br />

Centre for Fine Arts, Brussels<br />

<strong>EM2N</strong> Exhibition, Institute gta, ETH Zurich<br />

<strong>EM2N</strong> – same same but different,<br />

Architektur Galerie, Berlin<br />

ARCH / SCAPES, 7th International Biennial<br />

of Architecture, São Paulo<br />

Swiss Shapes,<br />

Architekturforum Aedes, Berlin<br />

Swiss Art Awards, MCH Messe Basel<br />

Swiss Section, Van Alen Institute, New York<br />

Media enquiries<br />

T + 41 44 215 60 38<br />

caroline.vogel@em2n.ch<br />

2


Selected projects<br />

in chronological order<br />

Heuried Sports Centre, Ice Sport Hall,<br />

Zurich, Switzerland<br />

Commission competition<br />

Dates competition 2011– 2012 (1st prize), ongoing<br />

Size 9‘850 m2<br />

Costs CHF 70 Mio.<br />

Client City of Zurich<br />

A large roof will give the sports centre an address and a<br />

framework. Beneath it the various functions are differentiated.<br />

The building’s considerable volume reflects the<br />

size of the spatial program. The hovering roof and the<br />

vertical tectonics of the facade nevertheless give a certain<br />

lightness to the overall appearance. Towards the open-air<br />

swimming pools the building becomes more spatial. It<br />

opens to the lawn by means of terraces and generously<br />

dimensioned flights of steps. In the interior the architecture<br />

is borne by the clarity and generosity of the spaces<br />

and spatial relationships. As a whole it consciously refers<br />

to Zurich’s tradition of public baths.<br />

Extension Bündner Kunstmuseum,<br />

Chur, Switzerland<br />

Commission competition<br />

Dates competition 2012 (2nd prize)<br />

Size 3’461 m2<br />

Costs –<br />

Client Canton of Graubünden<br />

In extending the Kunstmuseum the Villa Planta was to<br />

retain its formative role. Yet on the other hand the extension<br />

was to assert its independence and, additionally, to<br />

be legible as a new entrance. It achieves this balancing<br />

act by a form that is incised at the corners. The dramatically<br />

elevated silhouette makes clear that this is not just<br />

an addition. The set-back hollows made by the volumetric<br />

incisions create a strong sculptural statement that invites<br />

visitors to approach closer and establishes a relationship<br />

to the reactivated historic main approach to the site. At the<br />

same time the stepped form of the building produces a<br />

restrained volume that responds to the sensitive context.<br />

Monosuisse Site, Emmenbrücke,<br />

Switzerland<br />

Commission study commission<br />

Dates commission 2011 (1st prize), ongoing<br />

Size 90’000 m2<br />

Costs –<br />

Client Monosuisse AG<br />

Emmen, which in just a few decades grew from a farming<br />

village into a town, still remains an agglomeration without<br />

an old town or a centre. Converting the old Monosuisse<br />

site on the River Emme now offers a chance to give the<br />

town a real centre. The industrial conglomerate, a town<br />

in town, has impressive existing buildings. Different volumes,<br />

facades and typologies created truly urban spaces<br />

with different qualities. The project is based on four main<br />

theses: 1. Activating and linking programmatically, 2. Bringing<br />

the town to the river, 3. Strengthening the urban quality<br />

of the site, 4. Further expanding the existing diversity<br />

of buildings.<br />

3


Musée Cantonale des Beaux-Arts<br />

MCBA, Lausanne, Switzerland<br />

Commission competition<br />

Dates competition 2011 (4th prize)<br />

Size 12‘500 m2<br />

Costs –<br />

Client Canton of Waadt<br />

The new museum is at a fantastic location on one of the<br />

most public places in Lausanne. It connects with the Place<br />

de la Gare to form a large terrace. Proximity of this kind<br />

between an infrastructural and a cultural centre presents<br />

chances. The ‘Espace projet’ becomes an interface space<br />

– it is entrance, exhibition area and public space at one<br />

and the same time. The existing hall with its powerful spatial<br />

disposition formed the starting point for a new building.<br />

This is a building resting on a building. The formal<br />

strength of the new building is unimaginable without that<br />

of the old one. Past and present are inscribed as a plinth<br />

that yet also appears as an independent building.<br />

University Campus FHNW, Muttenz,<br />

Switzerland<br />

Commission competition<br />

Dates competition 2011 (recognition)<br />

Size 34‘250 m2<br />

Costs –<br />

Client Canton of Basel-Landschaft<br />

The term ‘campus’ is generally associated with urban locations<br />

where research, learning, culture and housing are<br />

combined in a vibrant mix. We read the building itself as<br />

an urban place, a small city, a vertically condensed campus,<br />

and articulated into individually identifiable ‘quarters’.<br />

A system of internal squares, streets and lanes gives<br />

each function a clear address. The ‘buildings’ standing<br />

along the internal sequence of spaces develop internal facades,<br />

the campus becomes permeable. By incising courtyards<br />

spaces of different depths are created. The principle<br />

means of expression are the load-bearing structure and<br />

facade grid, as well as the overall geometry.<br />

School Building Blumenfeld, Zurich,<br />

Switzerland<br />

Commission competition<br />

Dates competition 2011 (3th prize)<br />

Size 10‘051 m2<br />

Costs –<br />

Client City of Zurich<br />

School buildings have an important role to play, both as<br />

district centers and fixed points in urban design. With its<br />

terracing the complex becomes a large-scale deposition.<br />

The new school is connected with the district on all side.<br />

The staircase hall serves as a symbolic node in this network.<br />

The issue is to erect buildings that prove their worth<br />

in the long term. With their neutral structural grids, high<br />

spaces and high load-bearing capacity, industrial buildings<br />

can accommodate new functions without requiring<br />

major changes and provide a generosity. A column-slab<br />

structure with tall storey heights and considerable building<br />

depth forms a flexible spatial system.<br />

Mongolian School Project, Ordos,<br />

Inner Mongolia, China<br />

Commission invited competition<br />

Dates competition 2008 (1st prize), planning 2008 – 2010,<br />

construction 2010, ongoing<br />

Size 99’000 m2<br />

Costs CHF 60 Mio.<br />

Client City of Ordos<br />

The boarding school for 3000 pupils is to be created on<br />

the edge of the new city of Ordos. We see the project as<br />

a small city within the city. With its combination of a lowrise<br />

high-density mesh in the peripheral areas and taller,<br />

more prominent buildings at the centre, the complex refers<br />

to and adapts themes of traditional Chinese urban<br />

planning. The school is divided into a number of districts<br />

by the squares. Each school and each residential area is<br />

differentiated typologically to create optimal living and<br />

learning conditions. The inner spatial figure opens the<br />

school to the city and invites to appropriate the school<br />

grounds as public space.<br />

4


Hotel City Garden, Zug, Switzerland<br />

Commission study commission<br />

Dates commission 2008, planning 2008 – 2009,<br />

construction 2009<br />

Size 4’368 m2<br />

Costs CHF 18 Mio.<br />

Client MZ-Immobilien AG<br />

The task was to erect a temporary four-star hotel building<br />

on a public site that in 15 years will be used for a road<br />

building project. We developed this project from the serial<br />

character of hotel buildings. The standard layout of<br />

bedrooms next to each other was transformed into an<br />

expressive building volume by swivelling the module. The<br />

sculptural facade corresponds with an internal corridor<br />

figure; the building is given a head and an end. The idyllic<br />

location led to the idea of a facade of polished chrome<br />

steel. The facetted building volume mirrors its natural surroundings<br />

and transforms the place into a kaleidoscope<br />

of building and nature.<br />

Conversion Rosenberg, Winterthur,<br />

Switzerland<br />

Commission direct commission<br />

Dates commission 2008, planning 2008 – 2009,<br />

construction 2009 – 2010<br />

Size 1’280 m2<br />

Costs CHF 3.2 Mio.<br />

Client DN2M Projektentwicklung AG<br />

A supermarket erected in 1961 was converted into five architecturally<br />

ambitious ‘hall houses’. The original volume<br />

was retained and extended by adding a new recessed storey<br />

on the roof. The kitchens, dining and living areas of<br />

the five houses were created out of the former sales area<br />

with its ceiling height of four meters. A complex spatial<br />

system with split-levels and individual access to the roof<br />

was developed around the hall-like living space. The existing<br />

building fabric has been preserved for the most part.<br />

Inside the changing mood of the light and the visual relationships<br />

between the different levels produce a unique<br />

kind of living situation.<br />

Conversion Habsburgstrasse, Zurich,<br />

Switzerland<br />

Commission study commission<br />

Dates commission 2007, planning 2007 – 2010,<br />

construction 2009 – 2010<br />

Size 5’800 m2<br />

Costs CHF 20 Mio.<br />

Client Beat Odinga AG<br />

The conversion profits from the bulkiness of the existing<br />

building. The considerable ceiling heights make it possible<br />

to provide light for building depths of up to 24 metres and<br />

to create generously sized spaces. A new second staircase<br />

makes the existing circulation into a collective spatial figure<br />

with a specific form that creates internal addresses.<br />

A 3D puzzle made up of interlocking single-storey apartments<br />

and maisonettes is created between the façade and<br />

the circulation system. Each apartment reacts specifically<br />

to its position in the building. Artist Jörg Niederberger<br />

uses colour to ‘stage’ this internal circulation figure. The<br />

building meets the Minergie P standard.<br />

Cinémathèque Suisse, Penthaz,<br />

Switzerland<br />

Commission competition<br />

Dates competition 2007 (1st prize), planning 2007–2012,<br />

construction 2010 – 2012 (1st ph.) 2013 –2015 (2nd ph.)<br />

Size 13’254 m2<br />

Costs CHF 49.5 Mio.<br />

Client Bundesamt für Bauten und Logistik BBL<br />

In the extension to the national film archive the structure<br />

of the existing buildings arranged in a linear relationship<br />

to each other is translated by means of additions and remodeling<br />

into a composed, ambivalent form of parallel<br />

volumes of different length. The archive itself is de-signed<br />

as an underground storage space on the far side of the<br />

road that provides the best possible protection for the<br />

culturally valuable artifacts. This disposition reacts to the<br />

expansiveness of the neighboring landscape of farmland<br />

and gives the institution a very clear address. A shell of<br />

rusting steel encases the entire complex and binds the<br />

new and the existing parts together.<br />

5


Mortuary Hall, Erlenbach, Switzerland<br />

Commission competition<br />

Dates competition 2007 (2nd prize)<br />

Size 150 m2<br />

Costs –<br />

Client Municipality of Erlenbach<br />

In this project we divided the spaces into two interventions.<br />

A space-containing wall accommodates the maintaining<br />

functions. The mortuary proper is, in contrast, a<br />

freestanding building in the cemetery. Together with the<br />

wall, it sets up an entrance and deliveries area. The mortuary<br />

consists of several buildings that lean against each<br />

other. The individual elements both refer to and determine<br />

each other. The path taken by the mourners leads<br />

from the roofed forecourt, which opens towards the lake<br />

at one short end, across the enclosed visitors room to the<br />

intimate and self-composed space where the body of the<br />

deceased person is laid out.<br />

Keystone Office Building, Prague,<br />

Czech Republic<br />

Commission direct commission<br />

Dates commission 2007, planning 2008–2010,<br />

construction 2010–2012<br />

Size 11’600 m2<br />

Costs CHF 24 Mio.<br />

Client Real Estate Karlín Group a.s.<br />

This office building stands at a kind of gateway situation<br />

at a prominent situation in Karlín, a district of Prague that<br />

is undergoing rapid change. The ground floor, taller than<br />

the other levels, contains shops and showrooms while the<br />

upper floors are occupied by office space. The external<br />

appearance of the building takes up geometrical themes<br />

found in Czech Cubism at the start of the 20th century. The<br />

volumetric concept of the façade creates an ambivalently<br />

legible network of forms oriented in different directions.<br />

The double-layered façade not only produces a sculptural<br />

outer skin, but also improves the performance of the windows<br />

in thermal and acoustic insulation.<br />

Rivergardens Z3, Prague,<br />

Czech Republic<br />

Commission competition<br />

Dates competition 2005 (1st prize), planning 2005,<br />

ongoing<br />

Size 12’500 m2<br />

Costs CHF 16.6 Mio.<br />

Client Real Estate Karlín Group a. s.<br />

The site is in a prime location on Thámova Street in Pra-<br />

gue, between a generously sized courtyard and the banks<br />

of the River Vltava. The goal is to exploit the characteristic<br />

location and to give as many apartments as possible a<br />

view of the landscape along the river. This means that<br />

most apartments face north-south. We interpreted the attic<br />

storey stipulated in the development plan as a loosely<br />

broken-up level rather than a recessed top floor. A step<br />

of half a level in section creates a staggered cut figure<br />

that gives the façades their character and creates a kind<br />

of saw-tooth silhouette. In this way the structure of the<br />

building directly becomes its façade.<br />

Toni Site, Zurich, Switzerland<br />

Commission competition<br />

Dates study 2005 (1st prize), planning 2005 – 2009,<br />

construction 2008, ongoing<br />

Size 108’000 m2<br />

Costs CHF 350 Mio.<br />

Client Allreal Toni AG, Allreal Generalunternehmung AG<br />

On the Toni Site a former milk-processing factory is to<br />

be transformed into a platform for education, culture and<br />

living. Our design proposes tackling this sizable project –<br />

almost the size of an entire neighbourhood – with a kind<br />

of inner urbanism. On the outside the existing system of<br />

ramps is read as a vertical boulevard and reinterpreted as<br />

the main circulation. Inside, inner addresses are created<br />

that locate individual functions like buildings in the city.<br />

To create an open framework for activity for the campus<br />

users we work with different degrees and with a range<br />

extending from huge public spaces to intimate private<br />

ones. The building as city, the city as building.<br />

6


Culture and Congress Centre, Thun,<br />

Switzerland<br />

Commission study<br />

Dates competition 2005 (1st prize), planning 2005 – 2009,<br />

construction 2009–2011<br />

Size 6’400 m2<br />

Costs CHF 24 Mio.<br />

Client City of Thun<br />

Upgrading the town meeting hall into a culture and congress<br />

centre posed two major challenges. The restrictive<br />

general framework of the project and the question of how<br />

to deal architecturally with the existing building from the<br />

1980s. The extension should condense the complex in<br />

both spatial and programmatic terms and strengthen its<br />

public character. As the strategic use of resources was<br />

essential, we reduced the interventions in the existing fabric<br />

to a minimum, leaving the meeting hall ‘untouched’.<br />

Alongside it a new, functionally neutral hall was placed.<br />

The new foyer and the existing one combine to form a<br />

richly modulated spatial figure.<br />

Hardbrücke Railway Station Upgrading,<br />

Zurich, Switzerland<br />

Commission competition<br />

Dates competition 2004 (1st prize), construction<br />

2005 – 2007<br />

Size 5’650 m2<br />

Costs CHF 3.35 Mio.<br />

Client City of Zurich<br />

By means of selective interventions we attempted to give<br />

the station a new identity, to make it easier to find your<br />

way around and to increase the attractiveness of the front<br />

area. On two levels the railway is anchored in the urban<br />

fabric by means of large illuminated panels. The spaces<br />

inside the station were ‘tidied up’. They were given a clear<br />

visual appearance that orders the spaces and makes orientation<br />

easier. The colours and signs are derived from<br />

the corporate design of the Swiss Federal Railways. The<br />

area in front of the entrance ramp beneath the bridge was<br />

reformulated as a generously dimensioned railway station<br />

concourse.<br />

Housing Im Forster, Zurich, Switzerland<br />

Commission competition<br />

Dates competition 2004 (1st prize), planning 2007 – 2010,<br />

construction 2009–2011<br />

Size 5’952 m2<br />

Costs –<br />

Client private<br />

The five building areas in the park complex ‘Im Forster’<br />

are positioned so as to ensure optimum preservation of<br />

the parkland. The building lot ‘Gärtnerei’ stands in an<br />

atmospheric clearing, characterised by tall trees in the<br />

south and filter-like planting towards the former tennis<br />

court. The L-shaped building creates an arrivals area on<br />

the street side and a garden space on the park front that<br />

guarantees all the apartments breadth and openness. The<br />

white-clad building stands on an exposed concrete plinth.<br />

The apartments are of very different kinds, depending on<br />

their position they face in two or three directions or have<br />

taller rooms extending into the roof.<br />

Refurbishment Viaduct Arches, Zurich,<br />

Switzerland<br />

Commission competition<br />

Dates competition 2004 (1st prize), planning 2005 – 2008,<br />

construction 2008–2010<br />

Size 9’008 m2<br />

Costs CHF 35.3 Mio.<br />

Client Foundation PWG<br />

The viaduct originally used as a railway line, had to be<br />

formed in a linear park that will be part of a culture and<br />

leisure mile. This initiated two decisive urban impulses:<br />

The viaduct as a spatial barrier becomes a linking structure<br />

and the outdoor spaces bordering it are upgraded.<br />

We viewed the ambivalence of a large-scale connecting<br />

machine and a linear building as a fundamental quality<br />

and used it as the architectural leitmotiv to connect the<br />

new uses with the viaduct structure. The characteristic<br />

Cyclopean masonry forms the central atmospheric element.<br />

The new structures are deliberately restrained so<br />

as to emphasise the existing arches.<br />

7


Theater 11, Zurich, Switzerland<br />

Commission competition<br />

Dates competition 2003 (1st prize), planning 2003 – 2005,<br />

construction 2005 – 2006<br />

Size 9’188 m2<br />

Costs CHF 27.2 Mio.<br />

Client MCH Messe Zürich AG<br />

The refurbishment of a theatre building required an additional<br />

700 seats and a larger foyer. This gave the starting<br />

point for a radical transformation of the existing substance<br />

into a contemporary musical theatre. Our project<br />

‘cannibalises’ existing elements such as the basement and<br />

the fly tower. The new volume reacts in a differentiated<br />

way to the various scales of the urban context. During<br />

the day the façade of standing- seam perforated metal is<br />

reminiscent of industrial buildings. At night the windows<br />

behind the translucent membrane begin to glow, transforming<br />

the building into an artificial lantern. The activities<br />

inside are conveyed outside by large ‘eyes’.<br />

Extension Funkwiesenstrasse, Zurich,<br />

Switzerland<br />

Commission direct commission<br />

Dates commission 2003, construction 2007 – 2009<br />

Size 30 m2 (extension)<br />

Costs –<br />

Client private<br />

The client wished to make better use of the large garden<br />

on his site. We designed a garden pavilion as an extension<br />

to the living area. The accessible roof of this pavilion<br />

serves as a terrace. For an abstract effect we deliberately<br />

restricted the number of materials used. The design of the<br />

surroundings was included in the project from the very<br />

beginning. The seating area in the garden, the flowerbed<br />

and the pool produce in conjunction with the small building<br />

a powerful and independent ensemble. The house, the<br />

trees and the seasons are reflected in the areas of glass<br />

and water; at times the pavilion seems almost to dissolve<br />

in the dialogue with its setting.<br />

Extension Gross House, Greifensee,<br />

Switzerland<br />

Commission direct commission<br />

Dates commission 2003, planning 2003 – 2004,<br />

construction 2004 – 2008 (two phases)<br />

Size 67 m2 (new building), 127 m2 (conversion)<br />

Costs –<br />

Client private<br />

The use of space in this 1960s development of single-storey<br />

row houses seems wasteful. As, according to the regulations,<br />

underground buildings do not count as utilization<br />

of space, we created an underground patio house as a<br />

kind of ‘second house’. Whereas the two courtyards are<br />

sharply incised in the garden, the two new bedrooms and<br />

a bathroom are attached to the existing basement. The<br />

existing hobby room was converted to a third bed-room<br />

and a former crawl space into a home cinema. This gain<br />

of space allowed two ground floor rooms to be opened<br />

up. It is only now that this house responds to its privileged<br />

situation as the end building in a row.<br />

Hardau Schools, Zurich, Switzerland<br />

Commission competition<br />

Dates competition 2002 (1st prize), planning 2002 – 2004,<br />

construction 2004 – 2005<br />

Size 2’476 m2 (Vocational), 2’334 m2 (Primary)<br />

Costs CHF 15.7 Mio. (Voc.), CHF 14.6 Mio. (Prim.)<br />

Client City of Zurich<br />

Two neighbouring schools designed by Otto Glaus, from<br />

the 1960s and the 1980s were to be extended. The co-existence<br />

and interpenetration of essentially very different<br />

urban fragments makes the perimeter into an exciting but<br />

difficult part of the city that is characterised by strong contrasts.<br />

We attempted not to sugar-coat this place, but to<br />

develop the thinking behind it further. The area is opened<br />

up and connected internally by means of a meandering<br />

public park. The existing building fragments were augmented<br />

by employing specific tailor-made measures, their<br />

spatial presence is strengthened and they are connected<br />

to the new outdoor space.<br />

8


Holiday Home, Flumserberg,<br />

Switzerland<br />

Commission direct assignment<br />

Dates commission 2002, construction 2003<br />

Size 183 m2<br />

Costs –<br />

Client private<br />

Most holiday houses look the same and the site’s specific<br />

character is seldom taken into. Our design relates to the<br />

wonderful place, adjacent to an alpine field. The house<br />

rises vertically in order to capture the spectacular views.<br />

The meadow around the building is left undisturbed, no<br />

garden design alters the appearance of the place. On the<br />

exterior, the house variegates the omnipresent chalet<br />

theme with its dark wood cladding and small window<br />

openings creating the image of a chalet tower with huge<br />

panorama windows. As an antithesis to living in separate<br />

rooms we developed our design from the hypothesis of<br />

a single-room house.<br />

Public Record Office Basel-Landschaft,<br />

Liestal, Switzerland<br />

Commission competition<br />

Dates competition 2000 (1st prize), planning 2001–2007,<br />

construction 2005 – 2007<br />

Size 4’705 m2<br />

Costs CHF 15.4 Mio.<br />

Client Canton of Basel-Landschaft<br />

The current location of the existing office, cut off from<br />

the town, hardly allows the public character of the institution<br />

to be expressed. We interpreted the need to double<br />

the amount of space as a chance to translate the existing<br />

building into a powerful, self-confident form. We added<br />

an additional storey to the archive wing. Consequently the<br />

spatial programme is no longer organized horizontally but<br />

vertically. By placing the public zone on the second floor<br />

the visitors’ area is lifted out of the cramped topography.<br />

In the form of a glazed roof volume the new public zone<br />

now engages the urban district of Liestal, which lies on<br />

the far side of the railway line embankment.<br />

Community Centre Aussersihl, Zurich,<br />

Switzerland<br />

Commission competition<br />

Dates competition 1999 (1st prize), planning 2002 – 2003,<br />

construction 2003 – 2004<br />

Size 866 m2<br />

Costs CHF 3.0 Mio.<br />

Client City of Zurich<br />

After the budget was reduced by 45% the amount of usable<br />

floor area was reduced by only 25%, which meant<br />

radically cutting building costs: strategic minimalism! A<br />

basic structure, enhanced at specific points, now offers<br />

space for diverse activities. The building still blends in the<br />

park by its form and colour. Lime sand brick is the cheapest<br />

material to build curved walls. With the radical use<br />

of colour we ‘killed’ the somewhat out-of-date material<br />

so that only colour and form remains. Starting from the<br />

image of tree bark, the façade is perforated and tattooed.<br />

A skin is generated which exceeds the image of a ‘Lochfassade’,<br />

creates depths and relates to the environment.<br />

Hegianwandweg Housing Development,<br />

Zurich, Switzerland<br />

Commission competition<br />

Dates competition 1998 (1st prize), planning 2000 – 2002,<br />

construction 2002 – 2003<br />

Size 14‘404 m2<br />

Costs CHF 32.8 Mio.<br />

Client Familiengenossenschaft Zürich<br />

We tend to understand community more as a possibility<br />

than a constraint. It is given spatial expression in the<br />

carefully worked out sequence of public to private spaces.<br />

Interface spaces, such as entrance halls to buildings,<br />

apartment entrances and balconies, are concentrated in<br />

terms of both atmosphere and programme. We worked at<br />

creating a kind of architecture that defines spatial qualities<br />

and is yet open to individual appropriation and programmatic<br />

changes. The development is laid over the former<br />

allotment gardens and brings its own outdoor spaces with<br />

it. The positioning of the volumes creates both extreme<br />

closeness and a spatial depth.<br />

9

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