Project Category: Studies/Competitions

The architectural and urban planning concept underpinning the design is inspired by the notion of a building that is imbued with a sense of the celebratory, yet at the same time is part of everyday life. The center’s architecture features cosmopolitan touches, while remaining rooted in the local context and regional traditions. The large building on a sloping site responds to the square in front of the train station and the adjacent smaller built structures by means of a moderately proportioned wing that extends over the tracks in an open, welcoming gesture.

The roof, incorporating a variety of angles and different shapes, structures the building rhythmically and strikes a balance between expressive and traditional roof pitches. Above the exhibition space and the foyer, skylights are created by folds and bends in the roof. These convolutions settle into a more tranquil configuration over the concert hall and project outward to provide cover over the platforms and the smaller entrance volume on Bahnhofsplatz. Here, a wide stairway by the entrance provides access to the restaurant on the upper floor, which offers a view over the square. From this area the generously proportioned foyer leads into the concert hall and the exhibition spaces. Mineral materials were selected for the surfaces of the foyer and the museum area in the eastern part of the building. The rooms here have varied proportions and receive natural light via high shed roof elements or side windows. A circular path through the building leads down from the upper floor and back up again.

The design for the concert hall is based on a cuboid form. The finely modeled contours of its wooden paneling create a dense mesh of reflecting surfaces, producing rich, well-balanced acoustics. The visual impression in the concert hall is of a bright, warm, wooden space. Metallic particles - gold brass, nickel silver, and copper - shimmer in the pores of the wood, for the concert hall is interpreted as a massive spatial ‘instrument’: a space that captures and reflects sounds and therefore ‘shines forth’ in the materiality of wooden and metal musical instruments.

Two independent structures are utilized in the concert hall to ensure acoustic decoupling. The load-bearing structure is executed with concrete and steel girders, essential for the large spans and the varying configurations of the roof above the center’s various spaces. The shell of the building, which is composed of copper sheets, functions as cladding for the roofs and façades, while at the same time forming a Faraday cage to protect against electromagnetic interference from the nearby railway. In addition, the copper’s brown hue echoes the color palette of the traditional wooden buildings and integrates the contemporary structure into Gstaad’s townscape.

Passengers will enter the new station building from this ground-level square, Bahnhofsplatz, using escalators, stairways, or elevators to reach the bridge level, where in the future trams will share the bus stops. Two new concourses connected to the bridge lead down to the commuter train platforms. An intermediate level, forming a gallery in the high entrance hall, allows passengers to change to other lines and traverse the site without crossing the Hardbrücke traffic lanes.

The narrow underground connecting tract currently in use will be taken out of operation and used exclusively for technical infrastructure. In conjunction with the existing passenger tunnel to the west, a generously proportioned new passenger tunnel in the eastern part of the site will help to further ease pedestrian traffic, particularly on the middle platform.

Roofs with multiple folds provide shelter for the platforms, sweeping up to Hardbrücke bridge in the east and west, then widening along the length of the bridge above the bus/tram stops and the entrance building. The latter establishes a link under the bridge between the two sides of the site. A nuanced building emerges, providing a spatial frame for the branching streams of passengers while confidently asserting its status as an autonomous structure.

In the platform area, the configuration of the structural system is coordinated with the structural axes of the bridge, offering optimum flexibility for future alterations to the track and platform layout. The load-bearing constructions of the concourses and roofs are entirely independent of the existing bridge structure.

Other traces nonetheless evoke the history and ambience of this locus - the railroad tracks, the turntable, and the northern retaining wall with various rooms embedded in its structure. Last but not least, there are the finely detailed silhouettes of glazed and re-used bricks set into the new walls: these trace out the former positions of the walls and doors, as well as the general contours of the building that used to stand here, and ornament the new building.

The new, precise positioning of the museum creates two generously proportioned squares, providing space for two additional museum buildings in subsequent phases of development. The new building leaves a wide, bright passage through to the western part of the plot. Lined with small shops and galleries in the historic wall niches, this passage links the two squares. The definitive urban framework for the district will be completed in the future, with the northern border of the site developed as a raised garden terrace with pavilions, while the two smaller museums (mudac, Elysée), one in the eastern and one in the western part of the site, will mark the museum district’s starting and ending points.

At two strategic points the primarily single-story volume rises up to form multi-story façades; fronting the square in the east, to clearly mark the building and the new district within the urban context, and on the side toward the rail tracks. The eastern part of the structure houses the areas dedicated to public functions (cafe, auditorium, museum education, and library), which the museum will share with other institutions that will join the “pôle muséal et culturel” in the future. The western part comprises the museum’s workspaces and administrative areas, which are not open to the public.

The main focus is on offering visitors the best possible spatial ambience in which to encounter the artworks. All the exhibition areas on the ground level are confi gured to allow natural light to enter from above and to offer easily accessible, barrier-free visits. The main entrance to the museum is in the northeastern corner of the building, looking toward the square and the passage, and is flanked by the bookshop and the cafe. After circling through the permanent or temporary exhibition, the route leads back into the main foyer, which also opens onto the “Espace projets,” used for special exhibitions.

The elongated main body of the building offers space to deploy photovoltaic arrays across large expanses of the roof to generate electricity and supply the energy needed for the building services. A slender ribbed prefabricated support structure and in-situ recycling of demolition material to construct the load-bearing elements and the façade help to reduce the building’s gray energy consumption. Old bricks from the walls of the former locomotive shed are used in conjunction with new bricks as the construction material for the external shell.