Description

This high-rise building incorporates a former manufacturing facility into its base. With its scale and character, the base creates a visual connection to the surrounding production facilities. It is now used to house a rehearsal stage. While the tower rises vertically on the street side, on the opposite side it begins to taper above the roofline of the neighboring city blocks to create slightly terraced levels on its upper portion. Facing south, these floor-to-ceiling glazed loggias offer residents a panoramic view of the city center and Lake Zurich.

The floor plan organization and spatial quality of the residential levels is characterized by a structural system of parallel shear walls seemingly extending into the generous loggias on the terraced side of the building. Depending on the location, this spatial system generates a variety of apartment types and sizes. Along the side facades, the units (
a
) extend from one side of the building to the other and continue into the adjacent segment at the back of the building where the entrance, bedrooms, and bathrooms are located. The units in the center (
b
) of the building connect multiple segments with a deep living room bordered at the back by a kitchen and hallway and on the sides by more private areas. On the upper floors where the building depth begins to recede, three segments are combined, while on the lower floors, two duplex units are situated next to one another (
c
). Their lower level runs the length of the building, while on the floor above where the entrance is located, they extend only through the rear portion. Single-floor apartments running perpendicular through three structural segments (
d
) occupy the front portion of the floor above the duplexes’ lower level.

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Originally published in: Oliver Heckmann, Friederike Schneider with Eric Zapel (eds.), Floor Plan Manual Housing, fifth revised and expanded edition, Birkhäuser, 2018.