After present you in METALOCUS the David Chipperfield Architects' design for Europaalle 21, Freischützgasse House, today we bring you the project of the architectural firm Gigon / Guyer, other of the four buildings of the banking complex.
The whole proyect has been carried through among Gigon / Guyer, David Chipperfield Architects and Max Dudler, whose work we will show you soon.
In this case, the Gigon / Guyon's design creates differents voids in the façade, in the ground floor, for creating several welcome spaces as well as for enhancing the general ventilation of the building. The façade seeks to be a curtain-wall façade in the truest sense of the word, through the creation of different ventilation slits and glass panels.
Memory of project
The office building designed by Annette Gigon / Mike Guyer Architects is located in the south-east corner of the ensemble and opens onto Lagerstrasse. Its multi-facetted volume reacts to the various urban planning requirements, building regulations, and functional specifications and derives from them an unexpected articulation. On the ground and first floors, the body of the building is set back from the street line, forming a covered entrance area as well as a welcoming gesture. Recesses and projections on the upper levels, modulate the volume, forming the attic story and bridge connections, as well as enlarging the office space.
A café, retail space and a generous entrance hall are located on the ground floor. The lobby can be accessed from both the street and the courtyard. It provides the main entrance to the office and conference rooms on the seven upper floors. A further access option is offered by a passageway encircling the courtyard on the first floor, which connects the four buildings. Wide-spanning concrete floors, a minimum of columns as well as the staircases and elevator cores constitute the Load-bearing structure of the building. Concrete was used in refined forms – as terrazzo and cast stone flooring – for the ground floor and the staircases.
The double-layered building skin consists of an inner metal and glass façade with variously cadenced window partitions, and an outer, ventilated layer of single glazing with metallically shimmering fabric inserts. The outer panes provide noise protection from the street, wind protection for the sunshades and also afford privacy to those inside, without compromising the views from inside the offices. The outer glass panes are arranged at varying angles to each other, generating additional slits for ventilation and, depending on the lighting conditions, a subtle play of different reflections. This lends the impression of a curtain-wall façade – in the truest sense of the word.
Text.- Gigon / Guyer.
CREDITS.-
Architect.- Gigon / Guyer.
Project Management.- Barbara Schlauri (Team Leader), Urs Meyer and Brigitte Rüdel.
Project team.- Luisa Wittgen, Katharina Löble, Bettina Gerhold y Ingo Brinkmann.
Collaborators.- Schweingruber Zulauf Landschaftsarchitekten (landscape architects), Leonhardt, Andrä und Partner, Beratende Ingenieure VBI GmbH, Berlin, Dr. J. Grob & Partner AG, Winterthur (structural engineers), bürgin & keller management & engineering ag, Adliswil, Thomas Lüem + Partner AG, Dietikon (electrical engineers), Polke, Ziege, von Moos AG Ingenieure für Gebäudetechnik, Zurich (building services), Kopitsis Bauphysik AG, Wohlen (acoustics), Gruner AG Ingenieure und Planer, Zurich (fire protection engineers), matí AG Lichtgestaltung, Adliswil (lighting designers), gkp fassadentechnik ag, Aadorf (façade planning) y Amstein + Walthert AG, Zurich (security planning).
Date.- 2010 (beginning of construction), 2013 (completion).
Site surface area.- 7.400 m².
Client.- UBS AG, Zurich.
