Description

Urban context

These solitary buildings of two and three wings are located on the outskirts of
the city’s settlement area, where it transitions into the rural space of the
Üetliberg. The surroundings of these six new buildings include the center of the
medieval city of Albisrieden, fine-grained neighborhoods of single-family
houses, and large-scale apartment buildings. The staggered arrangement of the
buildings and the articulation of the volumes into individual wings mediates
between the architectural structures of the surroundings and brings them into a
new urban context. Moreover, the buildings interlock in a way that the green
space between them seems to flow past, and the landscape of the nearby Üetliberg
is continued in the neighborhood.

Ground-floor zone

These solitary buildings set into the slope are distributed on three different
lots and only partially separated by buildings and streets. The individual
buildings are accessed from the surrounding streets at certain points. All-glass
entrances to the buildings establish the identity of the residential buildings.
The element that links the site together is the park-like center of the
landscape, which networks the neighborhood. Public paths at a suitable distance
from the buildings snake down the slope of the green space, part of which is
planted with trees. The resulting sight relationships clarify, thanks to the
similar facades and colors of the various buildings, the compositional context
of the two- to four-story buildings.

Building structure

The inner structure of the buildings also addresses the theme of experiencing
landscape. The volumes are articulated into individual arms pointed in various
compass directions. At the intersection of parts of the building there is not
only a spacious stairwell with natural light but also a room with a bathroom
separate from the apartments that can be used as a studio, an office, or
additional living space. In all the apartments a continuous sequence of rooms
leads from the stairwell by way of the entrance and the corridor to the living
space, which opens onto the green spaces on three sides. As the true main volume
of the apartment, this space reinforces the way the structure of the floor plan
relates to the site and networks the interior with the surroundings by means of
myriad views out of and through it.

Facade

Concealed behind the serene, clearly articulated facades of the superimposed
volumes is the private life of the residents. All the openings in the facade –
the windows as well as the loggias – are treated in the same way. The
restrained, severe designs of the monolithic volumes with generous perforated
facades and a continuous sill height – whose gravity and material substance
recalls examples of bourgeois dwellings of the past – conveys a protective
quality and the feeling one is safe at home. The loggias – carefully designed
open-air spaces with wood paneling on all sides and an adjustable textile
sunshade – serve as contemplative places of retreat, from which one can look out
over the surrounding landscape of the neighborhood.

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Originally published in: Ulrike Wietzorrek, Housing+: On Thresholds, Transitions, and Transparencies, Birkhäuser, 2014.