Studies/Competitions – Page 7 – Gigon Guyer Architects

Francis Bouygues Building, Ecole CentraleSupélec

On the plateau de Saclay, to the southeast of Paris, a cluster of universities and research facilities is emerging based on a long-term master plan. The new Francis Bouygues Building links the existing university with the new Gustave Eiffel Building, while its location also establishes a connection between the campus and the natural environs.

The new building occupies the entire plot with the exception of three volumetric setbacks that define the entrances. Two taller elements reinforce the corners along the street front and a patio with lush vegetation occupies the centre of the building.

The school is organized around a large, three-storey hall as a public space that connects the three departments and lends the building its identity. The departments, or Univers as they are called, are conceived as neighbourhoods with streets, lanes and squares, representing the motif of the city. The hall resembles an artificial topography that links the work areas and common areas on the ground floor and the upper levels, additionally creating a flowing, differentiated space that accommodates places of varying intimacy.

The façade is clad in enamelled ceramic elements with smooth, wavy or grooved surface textures. This architectural design relates to the surroundings, with the colours of the elements mirroring the departments of the school. In addition, the colouring of the modulated, shining surfaces responds to changes in the lighting, thus enhancing the visual impact of the building.

Location Paris Saclay, France

Programme University building, theatre, auditories, teaching and music rooms, laboratories, sports Hall, restaurant, cafeteria, offices, hotel, underground parking

Competition 2014, 1st Prize

Planning/Construction 2015–2017

Client Kluster (Bouygues Bâtiment Ile-de-France, Bouygues Energies & Services, HICL Infrastructure Limited)

Gross Floor Area 27‘400 m2

Competition Organzier CentraleSupélec

Team GG Mike Guyer, Pieter Rabijns (Team Manager), Martin Schwarz, Kathrin Sindelar, Christoph Dober, Martin Feichtner, Andy Gratwohl, Arend Koelsch

Contact architects Synthèse Architecture, Arceuil, France

Site Management Bouygues Bâtiment Île-de-France Ouvrages Publics, Guyancourt, France

General Contractor Bouygues Bâtiment Île-de-France Ouvrages Publics, Guyancourt, France

Landscape Architecture Bassinet Turquin Paysage, Paris, France

Cost Planning/Scheduling Bouygues Bâtiment Île-de-France Ouvrages Publics, Guyancourt, France

Structural Engineer Bouygues Bâtiment Île-de-France Ouvrages Publics, Guyancourt, France

Building Services Engineer EGIS, Paris, France

Building Physics Engineer AMOES, Asnières-sur-Seine, France

Fire Safety BTP Consultants, Villebon-sur-Yvette, France

Acoustical Engineer Jean-Paul Lamoureux Acoustics, Paris, France

Signage Integral Ruedi Baur, Zurich (Concept)

Colours Harald F. Müller, Öhningen, Germany

Model © Zaborowsky, Zurich

Espace de l’Art Concret, Extension of the Collection Building, Phase 2

Location Mouans-Sartoux, France

Programme Museum extension

Planning/Construction 2014–2018 (not realized)

Housing Development and Remodeling Pflegi-Areal

The quality of the building stock of the former hospital ‘Pflegerinnenschule Zürich’ indicated a clear allocation of the new functions – offices and housing – within the existing and newly constructed buildings. It was possible to retain the buildings to the southwest by Pfister Architects from 1933/34 and convert the former hospital wards into offices, while the heterogeneous hospital buildings to the northeast were replaced by housing.

Despite substantial interventions, the goal was to retain the spatial character of the large-scale facility. Akin to the former hospital building complex and the neighboring freestanding houses, the new buildings form a hybrid ensemble between a closed block development and individual building volumes.

Together with the existing buildings, the new housing complex demarcates and defines three large exterior spaces: the garden, the Samaritan Court, and the Carmen Court. The former patients’ garden, with its beautiful trees, was left almost untouched. The Samaritan Court serves as new access area for the underground parking garage and offers drop-off and parking space. The Carmen Court, in place of the former nurses’ garden and lying atop the new parking garage, now stretches across the entire length of the site. The ground here consists of fine gravel as well as large poured concrete slabs, which form a wide access path to the apartment entrances. Willows are planted in large baskets made of steel reinforcement bars and filled with stones and earth. Set atop the garage roof, these baskets form a nutrient-rich habitat as well as providing root space and acting as a counterweight for the trees.

Housing in the newly constructed buildings consists primarily of single-level apartments with generous floor plans. A total of forty-eight apartments with twenty-two different floor plan types offer 2.5 to 6.5 rooms. In addition, nine work studios were built at courtyard level. To cater to contemporary living/working constellations, some ground-level apartments are connected with the courtside studio spaces via internal stairs. Placing the ancillary and service spaces at the center of the apartments permits free circulation, while the load-bearing use of the service core allows for minimal, as well as conventional room divisions. Several apartments have exterior spaces in the form of terraces. Most of them, however, possess a kind of “fresh-air space”, also called a “seasonal room”. It transforms into an open loggia in good weather and can be used as a normal, heated interior space during the rest of the year.

Concrete is used for the basic construction as well as for the interior flooring. Gravel and sand, two ingredients of concrete, form the floor surfaces outside and on the roofs. The load-bearing cores and double-layered exterior walls form the support structure. Generous window openings provide the apartments with ample daylight and a sense of space. The highly perforated wall surfaces become skeleton-like structures and give the apartments – analogous to the existing buildings – a pragmatic, urban air.

Colors applied in the form of mineral-based, highly matt pigments contrast with the unpretentious, commonplace expression of the architectural language. The use of color was developed in collaboration with the artist Adrian Schiess as a means of defining the atmosphere of the outdoor spaces (Carmen Court, garden). Thus, only three of the long façades are painted, while the street front, the short façades, and the reveals were left unpainted. The colors chosen are yellow-green and white in the Carmen Court, and blue toward the garden. The yellow-green tone on the southwest façade of the Carmen Court colors the light and reflects its hue when the sun shines onto the opposite, white-painted façade, thereby “bathing” the entire courtyard space. The blue coat of paint on the garden side mingles with the green of the trees to transform the old garden into a blue-green “landscape space” – right in the middle of the city.

Location Zurich, Switzerland

Programme New construction with 48 apartments, 11 studios, 1 doctors surgery, underground parking 112 parking spaces; Remodeling of the existing building (former hospital) into office spaces

Competition 1999, 1st Prize

Planning/Construction 1999–2002

Client Stiftung Diakoniewerk Neumünster
Schweizerische Pflegerinnenschule, Zurich

Gross Floor Area 15’199 m2

Team GG Gaby Kägi, Pascal Müller

Site Management New Buildings: Ruoss Witzig Architekten, Zurich

Landscape Architecture Zulauf Seippel Schweingruber, Baden

Structural Engineer Basler & Hofmann AG, Zurich

Building Services Engineer Basler & Hofmann AG, Zurich

Building Physics Engineer Basler & Hofmann AG, Zurich

Colours Adrian Schiess, Zürich und Mouans-Sartoux, France

Housing Complex Park Grünenberg

One of the goals of this project was to make the existing Park Grünenberg the key theme of the new housing development. Three residential buildings were set in the western area of the park, formerly a landscape garden, while the architectural section of the garden to the east, along with the listed villa (Robert Bischoff and Hermann Weideli, 1910) were preserved as is. The new volumes are arranged and formed in a manner that guarantees vistas and perspectives onto the park or the lake. In conjunction with the vegetation, these polygonal volumes give the impression of a colorful “rock garden”.

The material used for the façades and construction is concrete – or “cast stone”. The exterior concrete shells extend into cantilevered structures, forming and bearing balconies. The concrete surfaces are finely sandblasted and coated with a glaze of mineral pigments. The artist collaborating on the color scheme, Pierre André Ferrand, envisioned a different tone for each building – dark gray, ochre, and yellow – each containing the color green. The appearance of the pigments themselves is completely matt, similar to a colored powder coating. From the outside, large windows reflect the surrounding trees, the sky, and the lake, while affording sweeping views from inside the apartments.

The careful arrangement of the apartments with their varying layouts enables each to benefit from the buildings’ orientation and location. In the smallest building (A), situated to the south, two apartments share each floor, enjoying either the virtues of slightly more lake views and evening sun in summertime, or more southern light. For the larger buildings located to the east and north (B and C), a variety of apartment types ensures that each is provided with both optimal natural light and vistas to the lake. The eight different types range from single-story units oriented toward three sides, to others with a living room that extends all the way through the building, to duplexes.

In analogy to the former landscape gardens, the green areas between the buildings are dotted with scattered trees and copses. Blooming bushes and evergreen shrubs adorn and organize the green spaces and distinguish the public areas from private gardens. The pathways are laid out as light-colored concrete surfaces that broaden and narrow, their effect comparable to large, level slabs of rock within the landscape.

Location Wädenswil, Switzerland

Programme 3 residential buildings with a total of 30 condominium apartments, 10 different apartment layouts, underground parking with 78 parking spaces

Competition 2002, 1st Prize

Planning/Construction 2004–2007

Client Grünenberg Baugesellschaft
c/o Beat Odinga AG, Uster

Gross Floor Area 9‘600 m2

Team GG Volker Mencke

Site Management Karl Steiner AG, Zurich

Landscape Architecture Hager Landschaftsarchitektur AG, Zurich

Structural Engineer Basler & Hofmann AG, Zurich

Electrical Engineer Innovative Elektrotechnik, Gossau Zurich

Building Services Engineer Schoch Reibenschuh AG, Nänikon

Acoustical Engineer IPA Energieberatung, Volketswil

Colours Pierre André Ferrand, Geneva/Krakau

Three Single Family Row Houses

The building, comprising three residential units, is a long, flat volume that runs parallel to the lake, to the street, and to the supporting wall in the middle of the property. Two storeys of balconies running the entire length of the façade that faces the lake include overhanging indoor rooms that extend beyond the length of the building on both sides. They underscore the orientation towards the lake of the two upper storeys.

The body of the building along with the supporting wall to the west creates a clearly defined slope-side entrance area. This is accessed by a metal staircase along the supporting wall, which is painted and overgrown with climbing plants. Overhanging volumes mark and protect the three entries, which access the units on the floor in the middle.

The building consists of two complete floors and a ground floor built into the slope, with a parking garage underneath. The living and dining areas as well as the adjoining balconies are situated on the top floor of the building to take maximum advantage of the lake view. On the floor below, in addition to the entrance, there are two large rooms of different sizes, which can be used as studies, guest rooms or bedrooms. There are two more rooms on the ground floor, which is level with the garden. The interior – kitchen, bathrooms and the arrangement of the rooms – were adapted to the needs of the respective owners.

Thanks to loadbearing outside walls and interior partitions, it was possible to individualize the floor plan of each unit. The skeleton-like layer of balconies facing Weidstrasse is concrete, the other three façades are clad in rear-ventilated panels seamlessly covered with fine-grained plaster. A metal-like iridescent silver unifies the masonry and, in combination with the naturally anodized aluminium window frames, the glass balustrades that reflect the silver, and the aluminium steamed fabric blinds, it generates an overall effect based on the play and reflection of the light. The pink of the supporting wall along the access path both contrasts and complements the over-all metallic and silver colouring of the building.

A few scattered trees are placed on the meadow in front of the building. Bushes along the borders of the lots ensure the privacy of the garden areas. Elongated bands of concrete alternate with gravel on the ground of the rear entrance space and the outdoor seating areas. The roof, planted with undulating rows of thyme in various shades of pink, optically extends the gardens of the neighbouring buildings above.

Location Rüschlikon, Switzerland

Programme Three residential units, combined in one building volume, with two storeys of projecting balconies

Competition 2002, 1st Prize

Planning/Construction 2002–2005

Client Weidstrasse 8 Client’s Association

Gross Floor Area 1‘200 m2

Team GG Gaby Kägi

Site Management Karl Steiner AG, Zurich

Landscape Architecture Vogt Landschaftsarchitekten, Zurich

Structural Engineer Henauer Gugler AG, Zurich

Electrical Engineer Elkom Partner AG, Chur

Building Services Engineer 3-Plan Haustechnik AG, Winterthur

Colours Adrian Schiess, Zurich and Mouans-Sartoux, France

Housing Development Brunnenhof

The former, noise-exposed three-story apartment buildings owned by the Foundation for Large Families in Zurich have been replaced by two slightly angled, elongated volumes of different heights. The larger, six-story building follows Hofwiesenstrasse but is oriented toward the park, which it shields from the street and hence from traffic noise. The smaller, four- to five-story building on Brunnenhofstrasse is in a certain sense within the park, surrounded by green on both sides with its height corresponding to that of the neighboring buildings. Both buildings are conceived as ‘stacks’ of horizontal slabs which cantilever to varying degrees and form generous balconies on the park side.

For the noise-affected building on Hofwiesenstrasse, access to the apartments is via longitudinally arranged staircases and spacious entryways that adjoin the eat-in kitchens. All bedrooms face the quiet park side and are connected by a projecting balcony. The living rooms extend through the apartment, facing both east and west and giving onto the park-side balconies.

Within the smaller Brunnenhofstrasse building, the living rooms are positioned along the façade and look onto the park to the south and southeast via adjoining balcony areas. In the four-story north- and south-facing part of the building, the eat-in kitchens are connected to the living rooms on the south side, while in the angled part of the building the kitchens enjoy the evening sun.

A circuit-like layout grants all apartment types spaciousness, freedom of movement for both children and adults, and enhanced flexibility of use. The latter is further augmented in the ground floor apartments by means of extra rooms between them that can be used by either apartment. The entrance lobbies on the ground floor are connecting rooms that link to the park and provide space for strollers, scooters, and toys. The naturally lit laundry and drying rooms are located in the basement, adjacent to the stairs.

A kindergarten and nursery are housed at the end of both buildings where the pathway to the park is situated. A multi-purpose common room takes the most prominent position at the corner between street and pathway. A continuous hedge along the street creates a green zone that provides the necessary privacy for the slightly elevated ground floor apartments. The park-facing apartments are elevated by half a story to allow the inclusion of a garden and play area between the park and the building. The hedges that run alongside the building approaches establish the border between these zones and the park.

The façades are formed by the balconies and the concrete bands that wrap horizontally around the building. Between them, floor-to-ceiling windows alternate with colored glass panels, joining together with sliding glass shades to create an interplay of reflecting and matt, opaque and translucent or transparent surfaces. The color concept was developed together with the artist Adrian Schiess. Facing the street, the glazing is dark blue and violet, while toward the park the tonality flows over large areas from blue tones to orange to yellow. The impression of the fluid, changing play of colors is enhanced by the varying positions of the sliding elements - ultimately the residents modify and create new color compositions every day, even every hour.

Location Zurich, Switzerland

Programme Two buildings, 72 apartments, 6 extra rooms, common room, kindergarten, day-care, underground parking with 75 parking spaces

Competition 2003, 1st Prize

Planning/Construction 2004–2007

Client Stiftung Wohnungen für kinderreiche Familien, Zurich

Gross Floor Area 18‘437 m2

Team GG Markus Seiler (Project Manager), Lorenzo Igual, Rolf-Werner Wirtz, Ulrike Horn

Site Management b+p baurealisation ag, Zurich

Landscape Architecture Hager Landschaftsarchitektur AG, Zurich

Structural Engineer Dr. Lüchinger + Meyer Bauingenieure AG, Zurich

Electrical Engineer Elkom Partner AG, Chur

Building Services Engineer 3-Plan Haustechnik AG, Winterthur

Building Physics Engineer Lemon Consult GmbH, Zurich

Colours Adrian Schiess, Mouans-Sartoux, France

Housing Development Neumünsterallee

The building turns a corner at the intersection of Neumünsterallee and Signaustrasse, creating a sunny garden area between its two wings that faces southeast. In addition, portions cut out of the overall volume form small courtyards on three sides, resulting in a meandering shape that links outside and inside spaces. One of the cutouts faces the morning sun and the garden, another the noonday sun and the avenue of plane trees, and the third the evening sun and the gardens of the villas opposite. Bridge-like balconies frame the courtyards, emphasizing the main volume of the building and, at the same time, offering views into its depths. Thanks to these ‘balcony bridges,’ the courtyards, which measure approximately 7.5 by 8.5 meters, receive daylight not only from above but from the side as well.

The apartments angle around the courtyards, thereby substantially enlarging the sense of space therein. The three main stories accommodate two 5.5-room units facing the East and West Courts and two 4.5-room units facing the South Court; the top floor holds one 4-room unit facing the East Court, one 2.5-room unit facing the West Court, and a 7-room unit facing the South Court.

The courtyards allow optimal use to be made of the building’s considerable depth, because they ensure that the living spaces as well as the kitchens and the large bathrooms can all be supplied with natural daylight. The heart of each flat is a spacious hallway. Laterally illuminated from the courtyard, it is a link between the private bedrooms and the living room. Its use is not defined, but it can function, for example, as a dining room or study, or provide space for children to play. The living room opens onto the lateral terrace and the outside and has direct access to the kitchen, which also faces the courtyard.

The ground floor is lowered slightly below street level so that a half flight of stairs and a ramp lead down to the large lobby of the building, which is illuminated from the central courtyard and provides access to the two circulation cores. There are also studios that can be accessed directly from the lobby and rented as office space or for recreational activities.

The load-bearing structure of the building consists of concrete walls and slabs. Wood/metal windows, 20-centimeter-thick thermal insulation, and plaster skim on rear-ventilated cladding slabs form the shell of the building, which meets the Minergie® (energy-saving) standard.

In collaboration with the artist Adrian Schiess, the walls in the courtyards were coated with silvery paint to ‘guide the light,’ while the outside façades are painted a darker gray. The lobby is rendered in a luminous copper color, and the spectrum of iridescent ‘light-suffused’ shades continues inside the flats, where the doors of the built-in wardrobes have been given a high-gloss, mother-of-pearl finish.

A pool of water in the central courtyard reflects the light from the sky and forms the focal point of the entrance area. The other courtyards are planted with tall, delicately leafed ash trees. The slightly staggered levels of the garden each have their own vegetation. Ground-covering evergreen shrubs and grouped bushes form together with the preserved garden wall and wrought-iron fence the traditional front garden area. The area to the southeast, designated both for adults and for children at play, consists of a grassy lawn with groups of trees.

Location Zurich, Switzerland

Programme Housing Complex as angled building volume with atriums framed by bridge-like balconies; 15 apartments, 2 studios, underground parking

Competition 2003, 1st Prize

Planning/Construction 2004–2007

Client Personalvorsorgestiftung der SV Group, Dübendorf
Client’s Representative: Daniel Nyfeler

Gross Floor Area 4‘799 m2

Team GG Markus Lüscher

General Contractor Karl Steiner AG, Zurich

Landscape Architecture Schweingruber Zulauf Landschaftsarchiteken, Zurich

Structural Engineer Dr. Lüchinger + Meyer Bauingenieure AG, Zurich

Electrical Engineer Elkom Partner AG, Chur

Building Services Engineer 3-Plan Haustechnik AG, Winterthur

Building Physics Engineer Bakus Bauphysik und Akustik GmbH, Zurich

Signage Trix Wetter, Zurich

Colours Adrian Schiess, Zurich and Mouans Sartoux, France

Railway Station Baar with shops, offices and apartments

Location Baar, Switzerland

Programme Construction of a mixed use development on the railway site: Railway infrastructure, retail space, offices, apartments, underground parking

Competition 2004, 1st Prize

Planning/Construction 2004–2008

Client Total Complex: Migros-Pensionskasse, Zurich
Public Square: Municipality Baar
Railway Infrastructure: SBB Swiss Railways, Lucerne

Gross Floor Area 6`500 m2 (above ground)

Team GG Mathias Brühlmann, Ulrike Horn

Total Contractor Halter Generalunternehmung AG, Zurich

Landscape Architecture Vetsch Nipkow Partner, Landschaftsarchitekten AG, Zurich

Structural Engineer ARP André Rotzetter + Partner AG, Baar

Electrical Engineer Mosimann & Partner AG, Affoltern am Albis

Building Services Engineer Hans Abicht AG, Zug

Building Physics Engineer Wichser Akustik & Bauphysik AG, Zurich

Signage Peter Spalinger, Atelier für Gestaltung, Bremgarten

Colours Adrian Schiess, Zürich und Mouans-Sartoux, France

Awards «Auszeichnung guter Bauten im Kanton Zug 2006–2015» Recognition

Housing Development Erlenhof

This residential complex, constructed on a former industrial site beside the ‘Oberwasserkanal’, a bypass canal of the Limmat River in Dietikon, gives the emerging district its first truly urban note. Three large built volumes are set above a shared basement level to create a slightly raised courtyard open to the water. Pentagonal ground plans with corresponding gabled façades characterize these volumes. The heart of the ensemble is the courtyard with its large alder trees, which also gives the complex its name (Erlenhof: Courtyard of the Alders). Hornbeam hedges line the perimeter of each of the private gardens outside the ground-floor apartments and articulate the shared outdoor areas. Short flights of steps lead from this part of the ensemble to the promenade along the canal. Rows of trees along the surrounding streets mediate between interior and exterior of the complex; they are the first step in developing a future garden city. This notion also underpins the color scheme for the street-facing façades, which are rendered in a vibrant green that shapes the mood and identity of this pioneering project in what is still an industrial setting. In contrast, the courtyard is transformed into a luminous, light-filled space by pure white façades, with the alders outlined against this backdrop.

Entrance to the buildings is either directly from the street or via passages between the retaining walls of the raised front gardens and continuing up single-flight, well-lit stairways to the courtyard and the apartments. The light here takes on a red hue created by reflections from the paint on the underside of the stairs, contrasting with the green façade on the street and the white space of the courtyard.

The 85 apartments utilize a range of different floor plans to take advantage of the orientation and positioning of the various housing units. The condominiums in Block 1 are configured with loggias set in front of south-facing living rooms and adjacent kitchens, while the other rooms face north. Block 2 comprises rental accommodation of varying proportions, including apartments that open to the exterior on two or three sides. In Block 3 living rooms incorporating open-plan kitchens run through the entire depth of the building, with other rooms grouped around this space, allowing the apartments to open both to the south and onto the courtyard. The gently slanted roofs create high-ceilinged penthouse apartments. Recessed loggias provide each apartment with an outdoor area protected from the weather, while the size and number of the windows are maximized to ensure that all the apartments are flooded with light irrespective of the room depth.

Solid concrete construction was used for the buildings, with load-bearing and bracing cross walls and flat floor slabs formed from in-situ concrete. The façades are finished in plastered external thermal insulation, the basement level in exposed concrete. The slightly slanted roofs feature extensive planted areas.

Location Dietikon, Switzerland

Programme 3 buildings with 55 rented apartments, 30 individually owned apartments, 480 m2 studio space, underground parking

Competition 2005, 1st Prize

Planning/Construction 2006–2009

Client Development Houses 1, 2, 3: Halter Entwicklungen, Zurich
Client House 2 (Rental Apartments): PV-Promea, Schlieren
Client Houses 1 and 3 (Condominiums): Wohnbaugenossenschaft Blumenrain, Zurich
c/o Baumgartner Knobel & Partner, Treuhandgesellschaft

Gross Floor Area 18'890 m2

Team GG Matthias Clivio

Total Contractor Halter Generalunternehmung, Zurich

Landscape Architecture Schweingruber Zulauf Landschaftsarchitekten, Zurich

Structural Engineer Basler & Hofmann AG, Zurich

Electrical Engineer R+B engineering AG, Zurich

Building Services Engineer 3-Plan Haustechnik AG, Winterthur

Building Physics Engineer Kopitsis Bauphysik AG, Wohlen

Colours Harald F. Müller, Öhningen, Germany

Housing Development Goldschlägi

The Goldschlägi site is located adjacent to the railway station in the center of Schlieren. The site borders a wide stretch of railway track to the north and a green space to the south that serves as a vista and access area for the apartments. The elongated, narrow residential buildings emphasize the orientation of the plot parallel to the tracks, but rigidity is alleviated by their offset alignment. The height of the complex varies between three and six floors, resulting in a division of the overall volume that creates differentiated outdoor spaces.

The urban concept is reflected in the individual apartment types. Those rooms in which noise level is of less relevance, such as the access cores, kitchens, and bathrooms, are located on the north, facing the tracks. All living rooms and bedrooms, as well as the generously proportioned, projecting balconies, face south over the garden area. Their staggered positioning provides residents with an outdoor space one or two stories high. The parapets and the side elements are composed of colored glass panels that ensure privacy and cast bright blue shadows when the sun shines.

The complex is divided into 105 apartments with different floor plans and of varying sizes ( with 1, 2, or 3 bedrooms ). All have one open-plan living / dining / kitchen area that is naturally lit from both sides. The kitchen and bathroom form one module in each unit, and a large number of different floor plans have been generated through its alternate siting.

The projecting and recessed façades facing the tracks have been finished in a bright red. The black-framed windows of various sizes and division – belonging to the kitchens, bathrooms, dining areas, and staircases – create a rhythmic pattern. The south-facing façades and the end walls are of white plaster, with the window frames and sunblinds executed here in anodized aluminum.

Concrete floor slabs cast in-situ and prefabricated concrete supports give the complex a regular structure. Bracing is achieved by means of the stairwells and the external end walls. The concrete structure is encased in large, prefabricated and insulated timber elements, clad with a rear-ventilated and plastered façade. Using frame construction throughout and avoiding load-bearing internal walls wherever possible has ensured a high degree of flexibility with regard to the floor plans.

Location Schlieren, Switzerland

Programme Two buildings with varying heights (3 to 6 storeys); 105 rented apartments, different typologies and sizes (2.5-, 3.5- and 4.5-room apartments), less noise sensitive rooms orientated towards the tracks; living accomodation / bedrooms and balconies face the green space to the south; underground parking

Competition 2005, 1st Prize
in collaboration with Halter Generalunternehmung AG

Planning/Construction 2005–2009

Client Migros Pensionskasse Immobilien, Zurich

Gross Floor Area 16‘693 m2

Competition Organzier Schweizerische Bundesbahnen SBB, Zurich

Team GG Gilbert Isermann

Total Contractor Halter Generalunternehmung AG, Zurich

Landscape Architecture Rotzler Krebs Partner AG, Landschaftsarchitekten BSLA, Winterthur

Structural Engineer ARP André Rotzetter+Partner AG, Baar

Electrical Engineer R+B engineering AG, Zurich

Building Physics Engineer Raumanzug GmbH, Zurich

Timber Engineer Josef Kolb AG, Uttwil

Colours Harald F. Müller, Öhningen, Germany