News: Danish firm 3XN has been selected as preferred architect to design a new headquarters for the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in Lausanne, Switzerland.
3XN was chosen ahead of 11 competing architects, including OMA, Toyo Ito and Amanda Levete, to develop its design for a new administrative home for the organisation governing the Olympic Games, to be built on a 24,000-square-metre site on the banks of Lake Geneva.
The new campus would consolidate the IOC‘s existing operations around Lausanne, creating offices for up to 500 employees.
The brief called for “a building that clearly reflects the values of IOC” and that could “serve as a catalyst for collaboration and interaction for the IOC Staff and Olympic Movement Stakeholders”.
“This is an incredible honour for our studio,” said 3XN principal Kim Herforth Nielsen. “The Olympic Movement has many expressions that are about people coming together in the best possible way.”
“We have designed the new IOC Headquarters as a physical expression of the Olympic Movement and its values expressed through architecture,” he added.
The design will be revealed after the IOC has made a final decision on the plans, following negotiations with the Swiss authorities.
Photograph of Lausanne, Switzerland, is courtesy of Shutterstock.
The timber and stone buildings of Gion A Caminada, a cult figure in Swiss architecture, will feature in an exhibition opening next month at the House of Art in the Czech city of České Budějovice (+ slideshow).
Haus Walpen, Blatten
Hailing from Graubünden, the same Swiss canton as fellow architect Peter Zumthor, Gion A Caminada has built little outside of his native region and instead focussed much of his life’s work on the village of Vrin, where he established his studio in the late 1970s.
Both the population and the economy of the village were in serious decline, so Caminada set about providing infrastructure that would help it to thrive again. These projects include the Klosterhof Salaplauna farming facility and the Mehrzweckhalle public sports hall.
Klosterhof Salaplauna
Initally trained as a carpenter and cabinet-maker, the architect also designed a series of houses aimed at combining traditional constructions with modern detailing. Examples of these include Haus Walpen in Blatten, Haus Caviezel in Vrin and his own home, Haus Caminada.
The exhibition, entitled Creating Places, will offer a retrospective of Caminada’s career to date, compiled by the architect alongside curator Michal Škoda.
Aussichtsturm Reussdelta
“The aspect of my architecture that I am interested in is the discussion with the local tradition,” said Caminada, who currently works as an architecture professor at ETH Zurich.
“I pose a question to myself what those old architectural systems may give us,” he continued. “Where is the substance of those constructions? How can they be transformed for new kinds of use to meet the requirements of the present time?”
Aussichtsturm Reussdelta
Other projects featured will include Aussichtsturm Reussdelta – an observation tower for ornithologists – and Waldhuette, a school classroom contained within a woodland cabin.
Stall Werner Caminada
The exhibition opens at the House of Art’s contemporary art and architecture gallery on 7 May and will run until 15 June.
Here’s some more information about the exhibition:
Gion A Caminada – Creating Places
“The aspect of my architecture that I am interested in is the discussion with the local tradition. I pose a question to myself what those old architectural systems may give us. Where is the substance of those constructions? How can they be transformed for the new kinds use to meet the requirements of the present time? It is always the matter of discussion and a new development. I believe that it is the core of tradition of the entire village.”
Mehrzweckhalle, Vrin
These are the words of the Swiss architect Gion A Caminada, whose exhibition was prepared by the Gallery of Contemporary Art and Architecture of the House of Art in České Budějovice for May and June this year.
In the late 1970s, Caminada appeared with a project of improving the development and functioning of the village. And Vrin became the place that Caminada focused a major part of his lifelong effort on. Nowadays, with the benefit of hindsight, we can state that certain ideas and proposals of Caminada’s have not remained at the level of considerations only, which is proved by an essential change on the place mentioned.
Waldhuette, Domat/Ems
Vrin, a village that was dying, both in terms of population and economy, started to change in a number of respects. People stopped moving away, and a number of communal and private buildings, as well as modern farming constructions enabling a contemporary manner of cultivating land, were built. All of this was achieved without a conflict with the traditional nature of the village. Traditions and the cultural heritage were linked with new, up-to-date needs. Another proof of the well-chosen way is that Vrin was the first village to be awarded the Wakker Prize of the Swiss Heritage Society.
In Caminada’s work, architecture also plays a social role. It is happy and beautiful only if the tension between tradition and modern ways bring attractive solutions and if its function is linked with a way of life.
Waldhuette, Domat/Ems
Caminada based his work on the presumption that houses have to reflect people’s stories, and that architecture is an interdisciplinary field, while technology is merely its complement. He uses contemporary means to imprint a traditional appearance to the Alpine environment. However, at the same time, he admits that architecture is becoming a political issue to an increasing degree. The designer has to overcome a number of obstacles related to politics. This is what he partly views as the weak point of contemporary architecture, which has forgotten to solve problems.
Haus Caminada, Vrin
Caminada focuses his interest on the countryside/periphery. He characterises it as the domesticated countryside. Although this area once received a generous support from the Swiss government, this support started to fade away as the government decided to support centres/catchment towns and large villages, which are supposed to influence and inspire the periphery. However, is he convinced that proceeding in the opposite direction is correct. He assumes that this way would, on the contrary bring about an increase in the number of abandoned villages.
He is very particular about tradition and continuity in his work, not only about the picture. His constructions communicate in a comprehensible language, giving priority to their own function. It places a great emphasis on details while studying further possibilities of traditional constructions and trying to find ways towards a perfect model of the timbered house.
Berghuette Terri
We can talk about architecture with a reflection of the original culture, with respect to a particular place, which is not only a romantic area, but also a countryside with whims of the weather.
This exhibition that Caminada prepared specially for the Gallery in České Budějovice focuses on the subject of The Creation of Places. At this venue, it deals with a particular architectonic object to a lesser extent, but gives more attention to the idea of how a place could be strengthened in its broadest reality. The exhibition is divided into five parts, and visitors may see both the village of Vrin and the relationships between objects and the countryside, and the place of Caminada’s next place of work – the ETH Zurich.
Haus Beckel Kübler
Gion Antoni Caminada lives in the village of Vrin, in the Swiss canton of Graubünden. First, he learned the trade of carpenter and cabinet maker and then he attended a school of applied arts. After gaining experience on his travels he graduated from the ETH Zurich, the Department of Architecture, where he currently works as a professor. In the late 1970s, he returned to his native village of Vrin, founded his own office, and is also politically active there. Most of his realised works that focus on optimising the functioning of the village are situated at Vrin and its surroundings. He is interested in discussions with the local building tradition, and seeks possibilities of employing old building constructions in modern architecture. To realise his constructions he uses traditional local materials wood and stone.
This wooden pavilion with a protruding canopy was designed by Ramser Schmid Architekten to offer a sheltered outdoor seating area for visitors to the city library in Zug, Switzerland (+ slideshow).
Swiss studio Ramser Schmid Architekten worked with landscape firm Planetage Landscape Architects to create the public pavilion for a new city park occupying the derelict space between the library’s two buildings, located within a historic arsenal.
The space was already home to a basement car park, which extends out from the edge of the landscape. Rather than burying this under more landscaping, the team chose to encase it behind a slatted timber screen and build a mushroom-like pavilion on top.
“The pavilion with its widely projecting roof creates a new sense of identity for the old Zeughaus site,” architect David Dick explains in his project description.
The structure is made from timber blocks, which are arranged in a pattern that resembles brickwork. Regular spaces create a rhythm of openings, revealing the supporting beams behind.
“In analogy to the retaining wall’s veil of wood, a transparent shell of horizontal wooden slats around the pedestal was designed in order to embellish the poor quality of the existing buildings rather than to hide them,” said Dick.
Planetage Landscape Architects surrounded the structure with shrub beds and low hedges, which line the edges of footpaths connecting the two library buildings with the city’s pedestrian pathways.
Photography is by Ralph Feiner.
Here’s a project description from Ramser Schmid Architekten:
City Park Zug
The area to be newly designed consisted mainly of the space between two locations of the local library: the main building in the south and the ancient arsenal, in which additional rooms had been installed into in 2011. The clients, the city and the canton of Zug asked for a public city park that was to be linked to the historic city’s pedestrian walks. The main goal of the park was to connect both sites of the library.
One of the main challenges was the fact that an underground car park from the 1970s partly juts out of the tilted terrain and its driveway divide the area into two sections.
The commonly accomplished competition entry by Planetage Landscape Architects and Ramser Schmid Architects was the winner of the 2010 competition. The jury report mentions the “surprising and yet persuading configuration of the terrain edge”. Instead of hiding away the underground car park’s volume by banks of earth, the planners accepted the presence of the building and decided to additionally expose it, extend it and to strengthen it by a wooden wall cladding. The car park now appears as a retaining wall, which separates the upper level with the old arsenal and its terrace from the lower part.
The lower level serves as public traffic area for the underground car park on the one hand. An array of shrub beds bordered by low hedges has been provided, which accompanies the footpaths towards the site and which can be seen as a spatial analogy to the existing Old Town’s gardens in Zug.
The staircases to the upper level pass by the retaining wall that is covered with vertical wooden slats. The cladding serves several purposes: besides being a fall protection, it highlights the built structures and facilitates orientation onsite. Protruding elements of the old underground car park, like for example an emergency exit, are masked. Visible transitions between new and 40-year old concrete surfaces are obscured with the new supplements, without hiding away the massive presence of the building.
The upper level located in front of the newly installed research library in the old arsenal is designed as a wide and open park. Generous and versatile lawns, a water basin, flexible seating configurations provide for a relaxed atmosphere.
The pavilion with its widely projecting roof creates a new sense of identity for the old Zeughaus (arsenal) site. The placement of the pavilion on the very top follows the inner logic of the complex: the mushroom-like pavilion is built on the lift shaft and the ventilation station of the 10-storey underground car park below. The technical section that protrudes the car park’s roof is amplified and used as a pedestal for the cantilevered roof construction. In analogy to the retaining wall’s veil of wood, a transparent shell of horizontal wooden slats around the pedestal was designed in order to embellish the poor quality of the existing buildings rather than to hide them. The cladding depicts the vertical subconstruction as well as the roof’s radially arranged laminated beams and reveals, solely by its geometry, the constructive design of the supporting structure.
Landscape architecture: Planetage Landschaftsarchitekten Team: Marceline Hauri, Christine Sima, Ramon Iten, Helge Wiedemeyer, Thomas Volprecht Modification of the car park and pavilion: Ramser Schmid Architekten Team: Christoph Ramser, Raphael Schmid, David Dick, Isabel Amat, Lena Bertozzi, Elena Castellote, Patrick Schneider Technical Planners: Schnetzer Puskas Ingenieure, d-lite Lichtdesign Site Manager: Kolb Landschaftsarchitektur
To commence this year’s illustrious Swiss watch and jewelry fair, Baselworld, veteran watchmaker Christophe Claret announced the release of Margot, a magnificent, limited…
Dutch firm Wiel Arets Architects applied an intricate fritting technique to the glazed facade of this office complex in Zurich to give it the appearance of onyx marble (+ slideshow).
Located within a developing commercial zone outside the city centre, the 20-storey tower and five-storey annex were designed by Wiel Arets Architects to provide a new Swiss headquarters for financial services company Allianz.
Planning guidelines stipulate that all new buildings in the area must be clad in natural stone. But the architects chose to instead create the look of onyx marble to “allow the building to blend into its context while simultaneously maintaining its distinguished stance”.
An abstracted pattern taken from the marble surfaces of Mies van der Rohe’s Barcelona Pavilion was used to frit the glass. This was achieved by building up composite layers of black and white dots.
“The original image of the onyx marble was rasterised, and from this two versions of the same image were created – one black and the other white,” project architect Felix Thies told Dezeen.
“These two images were then patterned and fritted on the back side of two different layers of glass, separated by a distance of six millimetres,” he explained.”When viewing the facade from an angle, the reflections of the rasterised patterns appear ever-changing, in accordance with the angle of the sun.”
A regular grid of windows breaks up the facade and each one contains a silver curtain between two layers of glass. These are controlled by computer to vary the level of shade they provide, adapting to different weather and lighting conditions.
The building’s entrance is at the base of the tower and leads through to a central staircase that ascends from the main lobby through all 20 storeys. This is to encourage employees to interact with people on different floors.
Four enclosed bridges connect the tower with the adjoining annex. There are also voids in the floorplates to create double-height spaces between storeys.
“The Allianz Headquarters can be experienced as horizontal and vertical landscape of neighbourhoods,” said the design team in a statement.
Internal heating and ventilation is provided from behind a panelled ceiling system. These panels are made from steel and perforated with a pattern derived from Swiss chalet ornamentation.
A cafe and restaurant is located on the fifth floor, while the level below accommodates rooms for client meetings. Employees can also take time out from work on a roof terrace dotted with Japanese maple trees.
A three-level car park unites the two buildings at basement level and provides space for up to 300 vehicles.
Here’s a project description from Wiel Arets Architects:
WAA complete construction on the Allianz Headquarters in Zurich
Allianz Headquarters is a 20-storey tower and 5-storey annex, the latter capped with roof gardens of Japanese maples; these two components are interlaced by four enormous bridges
The Allianz Headquarters is a hybrid-office and the pinnacle of a masterplanned mixed-use district on the edge of Zurich’s city centre. Comprised of a 20-storey tower and a 5-storey annex, these two components are externally linked by a series of four bridges, and vertically linked by numerous interior voids and staircases; as such, the Allianz Headquarters can be experienced as horizontal and vertical landscape of neighbourhoods.
Fluidly connected to the city centre by a multitude of public transportation options, the building encourages the blossoming of twenty-first century office culture, which demands flexibility in space and its use, via its hyper-hybrid programming that amplifies ‘interiority’.
The entire lobby and ground floor are publicly accessible, ensuring a continuous animation throughout both, which compliments the adjacent public square. A central staircase rises from the lobby up and into the 20-storey tower, allowing employees to, if desired, meander throughout all levels of the office without entering its core.
A café and restaurant are located on the fifth floor, rather than within the lobby, which creates a buffer zone between public and non-public areas. A ‘business centre’ is located one floor below, and contains meeting rooms for use with external clients. This ‘business centre’ enables employees to meet with their guests, without the need for elevators.
This new district’s masterplan mandated that all building facades be composed of natural stone, yet it was chosen to frit this building’s full glass facade with an abstracted pattern of Onyx marble – from Mies van der Rohe’s Barcelona Pavilion – which allows the building to blend into its context while simultaneously maintaining its distinguished stance.
Each element of the facade contains a closed cavity system, in which an aluminium-coated silver curtain hangs, which fluctuates its degree of shading by responding to external environmental factors – a process administered by a computer controlled algorithm.
Interior heating and cooling occurs through a panelled ceiling system that utilises concrete core activation and concealed air ventilation. These 1.35 x 1.35 m panels are composed of ‘crumpled’ steel sheets into which a three-dimensional pattern, derived from traditional ornamentation of Swiss chalet eave, has been stamped, which introduces a larger scale to the interior office spaces by decreasing the amount of visible ceiling seams. Micro-perforations in the panels maintain ventilation, allowing for no visible interior air ducts and the placement of an acoustically absorbing sheet on the back of each.
Inhabitable volumes adorn the roof of the lower building, with several garden terraces for employees. These gardens contain a singular red Japanese maple tree, which return in the landscaping of the central courtyard below.
Both the 20-storey tower and 5-storey annex are adjoined underground by a tri-level 300 car parking garage, where most of the extensive IT and mechanical facilities are stored. Similar to a home, the Allianz Headquarters has been infused with espresso corners and lounge like spaces throughout, for instance, its four 8m wide bridges, to stimulate informal conversation within this highly formal working environment.
This house in northern Switzerland, by local architect Pascal Flammer, frames views of a vast rural landscape through round and rectangular windows, as well as through entire walls of glazing (+ slideshow).
Located between a wheat field and a thicket of woodland, House in Balsthal is an archetypal wooden cabin with a steeply pitched roof and overhanging eaves, but also integrates modern touches such as full-height glazing and flush detailing.
Pascal Flammer specified timber for the building’s structure, cladding and joinery. Externally, the wooden surfaces are stained black, while inside the material is left uncoloured to show its natural grain.
Criss-crossing timber braces support the structure and are visible from both inside and outside.
The base of the house is sunken into the earth by 75 centimetres, allowing the surrounding ground level to line up with the bottom of windows that surround the building’s lower storey.
“In this space there is a physical connection with the nature outside the continuous windows,” explained Flammer.
A large fuss-free space accommodating a kitchen, living room and dining area occupies this entire floor. Cupboards built into the walls create an uninterrupted surface around the edges and can function as worktops, desks or seating.
While this storey features noticeably low ceilings, the bedroom floor above comes with angular ceilings defined by the slope of the roof. “The height defines the space,” said Flammer.
The upper floor is divided up evenly to create three bedrooms and a bathroom. Each room has one glazed wall, but the round window also straddles two rooms to create semi-circular apertures.
“Whereas the ground floor is about connecting with the visceral nature of the context, the floor above is about observing nature – a more distant and cerebral activity,” added Flammer.
A spiral staircase winds up through the centre of the building to connect the two floors with a small basement level underneath.
Perched on an Alpine ridge 3256 metres above sea level, this shiny steel cabin by Swiss firm Savioz Fabrizzi Architectes creates a starting point for mountaineers climbing the Bishorn, Weisshorn or Tête de Milon (+ slideshow).
Savioz Fabrizzi Architectes designed Tracuit Mountain Hut to replace an existing climbers’ facility that had been constructed in 1929 in the Chaussy section of the Swiss Alpine Club.
The existing building had been subjected to a number of adaptions over the years and would have required extensive renovation to bring it up to modern standards, so a decision was made to simply knock it down and start from scratch.
Wrapping over the peak of a mountain and glacier, the building has an angular shape that is orientated south to make the most of solar heat and energy.
“The nature of the site, between a cliff and a glacier, defined the position and shape of the new hut, which is constructed along the ridge above the cliff, fitting in with the site’s topography,” said the architects.
Solar panels cover the south elevation and the roof, allowing the building to generate all of its own power. Larger windows are also located on this side of the building, where they can take advantage of solar heat gain.
The difficulty in transporting concrete to the remote location prompted the architects to use a timber frame for the building’s structure, which had to be prefabricated and airlifted to the site by helicopter.
Corrugated stainless-steel panels clad the west, north and east elevations, creating a shiny surface that offers a distorted reflection of the surroundings.
Four storeys of accommodation are contained within the building, including sleeping spaces for up to 116 guests and large canteen.
“From the refectory, guests enjoy an uninterrupted, plunging view over the Val de Zinal,” added the architects.
Here’s some project text from Savioz Fabrizzi Architectes:
New Tracuit Mountain Hut, Zinal
The Tracuit Mountain Hut (altitude 3256 metres) belongs to the Chaussy section of the Swiss Alpine Club and is situated in the Val d’Anniviers, in the heart of the Valaisan Alps. Its superb position makes it the ideal starting-point for climbing the Bishorn, the Weisshorn, and the Tête de Milon.
The hut was built in 1929 and enlarged several times to cope with a constant increase in guest numbers and expected levels of comfort. Current requirements concerning health and safety, staffing, facilities, and environmental protection meant that the hut needed to be enlarged and completely refurbished. As transforming the existing hut would have produced a significant cost overhead, the club decided to build a new one. The design was chosen via an architectural competition.
The nature of the site, between a cliff and a glacier, defined the position and shape of the new hut, which is constructed along the ridge above the cliff, fitting in with the site’s topography. The south facade of the building extends from the cliff and works like a large solar collector, being either glazed or covered with solar panels to make maximum use of solar energy. The other facades reflect the surrounding landscape. From the refectory, guests enjoy an uninterrupted, plunging view over the Val de Zinal.
At this altitude, the construction methods had to be adapted to the adverse weather conditions and to the means of transport available. As transporting concrete is particularly expensive, its use was minimised and restricted largely to individual footings.
The whole of the structural frame is of wood. The wall and floor components, consisting of studs/beams, insulation and cladding, were prefabricated in the factory and transported by helicopter for on-site assembly. Panels of stainless steel cladding protect the roof and outer walls from the elements.
The east, west and north walls have only a few openings, reducing heat loss while providing optimum natural ventilation. Larger windows on the south wall, which is exposed to the sun, enable passive solar energy to be stored, and this wall is also covered with solar panels.
During the work, the existing hut accommodated the usual guests and also the construction workers. At the end of the work, this outdated, energy-hungry building was taken down. The lower part of the walls remains, with the south wall delimiting the terrace and protecting its users from the wind.
Via its large area of solar panels and south-facing glazing, the building makes maximum use of solar radiation. The compact shape of the building and efficient wall insulation reduce heat loss. Low-tech ventilation is used to recover the significant amount of heat emitted by the building’s occupants, while making it more comfortable and preventing any problems with mould growth in premises that are closed for several months of the year.
Client: Swiss Alpine Club, section Chaussy Program: hut with 116 beds, (6 dorms with 12 places, 5 dorms with 4 places, 1 dorm with 24 places), refectory, professional kitchen, techniques Civil engineer: Alpatec SA HVAC engineer: Tecnoservice Engineering SA
This railway service facility in Zurich by local architects EM2N features a three-dimensional patterned facade made from zigzagging cement modules (+ slideshow).
EM2N was asked by Swiss national rail company SBB to develop its 13,000-square-metre maintenance facility, which is designed to accommodate trains of up to 400 metres in length so they can be cleaned and serviced without being uncoupled.
Located at a yard visible to passengers arriving into Zurich’s central station, the building is intended to offer an engaging visual presence whilst responding to strict functional requirements.
“The brief was very technical and our job was to lend a face to the big shapeless monster of a huge technical facility landed in the middle of a central European city,” the architects told Dezeen.
EM2N chose to focus most of the project’s resources and design detailing on the building’s more exposed southern facade, creating a textural pattern by using a system of modular elements made from fibre cement.
“We approached the job basically as a cladding issue,” the architects explained. “Our cladding responds to the incredible size of the facility by operating with huge elements that add up to create even bigger forms which correspond to the size of the entire building.”
At the base of the building, the curvature and cantilever of the modules is limited to maintain a route for fire engines.
From a height of four metres above the ground the bulging surfaces become more pronounced, increasing the effect of the pillowed pattern.
Enormous doors at either end of the facility are framed by the concrete structure, with the undulating edges of the facade exposed as if the building has been sliced through to reveal its section.
Inside the service hall, the architects job was limited by the client’s detailed specification which determined the dimensions, layout and materials required to meet practical requirements including safety regulations, access and other logistical issues.
Extension of the Railway Service Facility Zürich-Herdern, Switzerland
The new maintenance facility being built at Zurich-Herdern will allow SBB (Swiss Federal Railways) to handle future trains of up to 400 metres in length with ease. SBB will be able to clean and repair entire intercity train compositions without disassembling them, since the entire train can enter the facility.
Through its central position next to the rapidly developing new neighbourhood of Zurich-West and by virtue of its sheer size, the new building acquires great urbanistic significance. It shapes the edge of the city towards the great emptiness of the railway tracks and greets visitors entering the city by train, signalling that they have arrived close to the city centre.
At the start of the competition many design decisions had already been taken by SBB or were predefined by the site next to an existing service facility and its limitations: Size, placement on the site, the functional layout, structural grid and so on were all given. The competition task was to find an economically feasible and at the same time architecturally satisfying solution to a huge technical infrastructure landed in the middle of a city. The competition team was headed by engineers, and the architect’s job was limited to “giving the monster a face”, i.e. to come up with a facade that would be more than just a technical cladding.
We decided to concentrate on the southern façade and concentrate design effort and money there. The repetitiveness of the inner structure led us to work with modular elements. Due to the sheer size of the building and the danger of it looking like a featureless stretched box, we arrived at the idea of a three dimensional modulation of the façade. The curvature of the fibre cement elements frees the endless façade from its flat monotony and renders a play of light and shadow.
The modulation extends across several elements to form a pattern that fits the enormous size of the building. The curvature and cantilever of the rounded elements is limited at ground level due to restrictions given by the fire truck lane. At 4 m above ground, both curvature and cantilever increases to produce an increased three dimensional cushion effect.
Both ends of the service hall with their huge entrance doors are treated as cuts, where the spatial façade is cut flat. The less northern façade is clad with regular undulating fibre concrete cladding elements.
Les architectes suisses Daluz/Gonzalez ont imaginé la Casa Mi pour son projet de construction à Herrliberg en Suisse. Avec ses 3 étages face à un lac, la maison mélange le béton et le marbre sous une forme très originale privilégiant l’espace. Une bâtisse minimaliste qui est à découvrir dans la suite de l’article.
The Rotsee rowing regatta takes place every summer on a lake outside Lucerne, Switzerland, and this wooden tower raised over the water accommodates the officials who observe, time and marshal each race (+ slideshow).
Designed by Swiss studio Andreas Fuhrimann Gabrielle Hächler Architekten, the Zielturm Rotsee, or “finishing tower”, is to be used for just three weeks of every year when Rotsee lake becomes the venue for the final leg of the World Rowing Cup.
The three-storey pine structure sits over a concrete pier that projects out across the still waters of the lake – nicknamed “Lake of Gods” by rowers in reference to the almost imperceptible current due to the protection of surrounding hills.
Wooden shutters fold and slide away from the facade to reveal windows and balconies that can be used as viewing platforms during races. The rest of the time they can be locked shut, turning the structure into an opaque wooden cuboid.
“[The building] usually remains closed and stands still on the reflecting water surface, transformed in an enigmatic sculpture-like house, with its shutters closed,” explained the architects.
The three storeys of the building are connected by staircases both inside and outside, and each floor is slightly offset from the one below.
“By subtle offsets of the three levels, the volume seems fragile and delicate, despite its considerable volume,” said the architects.
The building was prefabricated using a specially treated pine that will absorb less water, making the structure more stable and durable.
Zielturm Rotsee was used for the first time in 2013 and replaces another structure that had lasted for 50 years.
The topographical situation on the Rotsee-Delta is a unique landscape, embedded in between two hill chains the lake is very calm. Through its ideal character for rowing regattas the lake is called the “Lake of Gods” amongst rowers.
The requirements for the new finish tower were various and complex. Based on its function and the surrounding landscape the main aim was to create identity. By stacking the spacial units, the vertical volume achieves a point of reference on the wide horizontal plane of the Rotsee. By subtle offsets of the three levels, the volume seems fragile and delicate, despite its considerable volume.
The finish tower is part of the first phase of the Naturarena Rotsee area development. The opening of the rowing centre is scheduled for July 2016. The finish tower and the future rowing centre will form one architectural ensemble, perceivable by the mutual materialisation, constructive and aesthetic themes. The three-storey high, prefabricated wood construction is carried by a pillared concrete platform above the water level.
The statically active concrete platform provides access to the tower from the water and the shore. In combination with the stairway on the rear, but no less prominent facade of the building, the concrete structure anchors the building close to the lakeshore. This allegorises the hybrid character of the building, being a functional active building on one side and a sculpture in the lake on the other.
While the building is in use only during the rowing regattas, three weeks every summer, it usually remains closed and stands still on the reflecting water surface, transformed in an enigmatic sculpture-like house, with its shutters closed. This metamorphosis taking place every year was the ambitious challenge in designing the finish tower.
An architectural manifestation for this prominently situated finish tower in the picturesque landscape is necessary in order to find the balance between the practical functional and the sculptural-aesthetic requirements.
The aesthetic impression of the tower is emphasised once the building is closed and the sliding shutters are retracted. The large-sized sliding shutters give the facade a relief-like expression and let the tower appear plastic and house related.
Similar to a classical sculpture, the tower changes its appearance depending on the position of the observer and blends into the surrounding natural landscape, influenced by the constantly changing days and seasons. The intrinsic, however abstract form has a strong recognition value, and therefore conveys identity for the rowing sport; illustrating the function of the building, the context related access of the tower and the stacked units.
The functional units OK-FISA, Jury-Timing and Event-Speaker are axially arranged with the finish line, one above the other. Whilst the shorter facade is pointing towards the finish line, the longer facade is facing towards the finish area indicating the end of the sports ground.
The wooden construction of the finish tower consists of prefabricated elements, in order to build cost- and time-efficient. The wood used for the facade is a specially treated pinewood, from sustainable forests. A innovative method using pressure, heat and acetic acid brings the wood to reaction so that the ability of absorbing water can be reduced essentially, making the wood dimensionally stable and extremely durable.
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