HOME
Albisriederhaus Conversion
huggen_berger | |
| location | Zurich |
| function | office |
| contributed by | Axel_Simon |
After winning the design competition, huggen_berger converted the Albisriederhaus, which had been a community centre since 1934, into a regional social welfare centre with offices and consulting rooms. The refurbished façades do not immediately reveal the fundamental changes that have taken place behind them. The glass façade was reopened and the articulation of the main part of the building, with its striking concrete buttresses, was emphasized with colour. The main problem was the transformation of the large hall into two low-ceilinged office floors. The architects' solution was to site an access corridor along one side, emulating the height of the former hall - the false ceiling ending here in the form of a gallery. What distinguishes this conversion is the undogmatic ease with which the architects have assimilated the old building and transformed it into something new - obscuring the chronology and abandoning the prevailing diktat of contrast between the old and the new.
No MIMOA account? Register here!