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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 />
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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