Kochareal, Zurich

In recent years, residential high-rises have experienced a new boom due to the maxim of an inwards-oriented densification. However, due to legal stipulations and increased construction costs, high-rises cause additional costs of around 8-10% compared to standard building heights below 30m. For the present project, these additional costs shall now have to be countered by means of clever architectural approaches and technical concepts in order to meet the targeted and extremely ambitious construction costs while maintaining the required quality.

Type-defining parameters here were, in particular, the maximum floor area of 900m2 to assure fire protection, combined with efficiency specifications from the floor area to the main usable area. This led to the design of a multi-pronged access system, which spreads almost exclusively from a central core. The inevitably unilateral orientation associated with this has been compensated for by floors with up to four and five apartments exclusively oriented towards the south and at right angles. With a higher number of flats per floor, staggering the number of flats allows to increase the proportion of south-facing, sun-lit, and two-sided residential orientations. This means that apartments above the height of the surrounding buildings not only get considerably more sunshine thanks to an eastern-south-eastern orientation, but also have the sought-after and privileged vistas of Zurich in the distance. The staggering also allows more private outside loggias, as the outside spaces of the adjacent apartments are also turned towards the view and, thus, prevents privacy issues. In addition, each apartment benefits from maximum luxury inside due to diagonal vistas and views into one's own apartment. The floor plans are strictly designed according to the principle of vertical stacking. This is the only way to ensure the economic viability of this form of dwelling in a high-rise.

LOCATION: Zurich

COMPETITION: 2018

CLIENT: Amt für Hochbauten Stadt Zürich im Auftrag Allgemeine Baugenossenschaft Zürich

MEILI, PETER & PARTNER ARCHITEKTEN:

Markus Peter, Patrick Rinderknecht, Alice Hucker

Leonie Amsler, Christoph Erni

LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE: Andreas Geser Landschaftsarchitekten AG, Zurich

building physics: Gartenmann Engineering AG, Luzern

BUILDING TECHNOLOGY: anex Ingenieure AG, Zürich

VISUALIZATION: PONNIE Images, Köln