Description

The Limmat Tower stands out – but does not look out of place. Rising to a height of 80 metres above the new Limmatfeld quarter in Dietikon, west of Zurich, it points the way to passers-by coming from the station. Until the turn of the millennium, the site between the railway lines and the river was the site of Rapid’s tractor assembly works. Since 2008, the general contractor Halter has invested 600 million Swiss francs in the transformation of the area into a dense urban quarter for 3000 inhabitants with workplaces for 1000.

Hans Kollhoff’s masterplan envisages an urban island in the otherwise nondescript sprawl of the surrounding urban agglomeration. Six-storey perimeter blocks define the streets that enclose the Rapidplatz, a 160-metre-long colonnade-lined square within it. Kollhoff, who along with other well-known offices such as Gigon/Guyer, Adolf Krischanitz or Baumschlager Eberle, has also designed one of the plots, articulating his urban intention through the architectural devices of corner bays and gabled frontages. The Limmat Tower is part of the fifth and final construction stage developed by Halter to which a nursing home by Harry Gugger Studio and an apartment block by Max Dudler also belong. The final piece, for the moment at least, is a cooperative housing project by Duplex Architects.

Huggenbergerfries Architects, whose partners were all around 40 when they won the competition in 2011, bring a breath of fresh air to the quarter. Their tower achieves the balancing act between observing the urban pattern and introducing a self-assured solitary element that acts as a lighthouse for the new quarter, reinforcing its urban presence and identity. The tower rises out of the corner building at the edge of the site, stepping back to form a regular pentagonal floor plan. Its five-sided plan means that the high-rise has no predominant orientation: it looks to the station as well as to the banks of the Limmat, to the old part of Dietikon on the other side of the tracks as well as to the industrial area further downriver. The Limmat Tower is the only high-rise of its size far and wide.

As one would expect of any high-rise, the tower’s internal organisation is efficiently planned. Offices and rental apartments are located in the base, with 98 private apartments stacked above them. Despite the glow of onyx and sheen of travertine in the entrance hall, the apartments are not the high-end luxury residences found elsewhere in Zurich. At 130 m², the apartments in Dietikon are by no means small but contain four and a half rooms.

The tower was designed and built in just two and a half years. In terms of energy performance, the high-rise is built to the current state of the art. Heat is supplied by the city’s wastewater treatment plant and fresh air is supplied via airboxes in each apartment which draw in air directly via the facade. This decentralised system makes it possible to halve the space required for ventilation shafts.

The architects have organised the floor plan into five apartments per floor reached via three lifts and two stairwells. All the apartments share a similar structure: a corridor leads from the entrance to the living room that is situated in a corner of the building and reflects the geometry of the pentagonal tower shape. The sleeping areas – bedroom with bathroom – follow a strictly orthogonal logic. From within the apartment, one only notices the bend in the facade at second glance, but it serves to soften their orthogonal rigidity creating a sense of space despite the low ceilings (just 2.47 metres) and in parts small room sizes of just 10 m². All in all, the architects have created a high-rise that succeeds in balancing many demands.

Originally published in Bauwelt 11.2016, pp. 22-25, abridged and edited for Building Types online, translated by Julian Reisenberger

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