A Vertically Terraced Building in the City
A Collective, Vertical Residential City
The volumetry of the residential high-rise is based on a standard development, with the scale not only sought through a varied design of individual structures from high points to the controlled eave heights of the longitudinal buildings, but also through a proportional interaction with the surrounding quadrangles.
The narrow footprint of the residential high-rise makes it possible to maintain the recessed position of the high tower building towards Baarerstrasse and to form a protected interior space together with GIBZ, the Commercial-Industrial Education Centre Zug. The sophisticated relationship to the urban space is regulated in that access to the building is possible from all four sides. The main entrance to the high-rise residential building faces Baarerstrasse and also functions as a prelude to the Zug Technology Cluster. An open four-storey hall constitutes the vertical opening of the building.
On the first few upper floors, the shared working areas in the two-storey-high spaces create both an urban front facing Baarerstrasse and spatially frame the four-storey entrance hall. The vertical profiling of the high-rise volume by the recessed corners is complemented by a pyramidal gradation, characterized and rhythmized by the four-storey common spaces with their exterior terraces. The greened, collective outdoor areas are arranged at the recesses of the high-rise volume. They not only determine the sculptural form of the structural volume, but also highlight the spaces of social interaction.
moreThe residential high-rise is organized as a dense, eight-span residential tower with an optimized, square access core in the middle. For the design of the flats, the profiled volume with its recessed corners is largely used for floor plans oriented towards two sides. This not only allows to prevent one-sided and unattractively oriented flats but also allows the sun to penetrate into each flat for a significantly longer time. In the proposed solution, the extension of the square access core to form an H-shaped construction can accommodate all vertical building-service developments and directly connect them to the adjacent bathroom and kitchen units. This arrangement, with the corner used for an individual room, allows an L-shaped design of the living and dining room, the use of which can be individually and freely chosen
The sophisticated systematization of the advantageously applied composite construction method provokes the use of prefabricated, composite wood-and-concrete elements that the H-figure directly spans onto the façade. The dimensions of these ribbed slabs do not obey the masses usual in residential construction or form, as with a module, the smallest common multiple, but create spatial relationships and units instead that regulate the entire flat. The inner, non-load-bearing room dividers are arranged separately from the organizing masses of the supporting structure.
The loads are carried by an external skeleton construction made of ash wood. However, they reach dimensions that can no longer be integrated into the façade elements and, thus, allow the supporting structure to be separated from the walls to form a “façade libre” – which is also to be created by linear, external wooden elements.
LOCATION: Zug
COMPETITION: 2019
CLIENT: V-Zug Immobilien AG
MEILI, PETER & PARTNER ARCHITEKTEN:
Markus Peter, Patrick Rinderknecht, Alice Hucker
Roman Pfister; Linus Cavegn, Raphael Jans,
Leonard Mitchell, Maurizio Mätzler
GENERAL CONTRACTOR: Anliker AG
Generalunternehmung, Emmenbrucke
timber construction: JPF-Ducret SA, Bulle
LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE: Andreas Geser Landschaftsarchitekten AG, Zurich
civil engineers TIMBER CONSTRUCTION:
INGENI AG, Zurich
CIVIL ENGINEERS and fire protection:
Makiol Wiederkehr AG, Beinwil am See
BUILDING TECHNOLOGY: Polke Ziege von Moos AG, Zurich
BUILDING PHYSICS AND sustainability:
Gartenmann Engineering AG, Luzern
electrical planning: Thomas Lüem Partner
RENDERING: Karin Gauch, Fabien Schwartz, Zug
Simon Cheung, Zürich