Swiss studio E2A infilled the facade of an previous Zurich warehouse to develop this rehearsal room for the city’s opera residence, before tacking a 60-metre-high apartment block onto 1 side .
Photograph by Georg Aerni
E2A was commissioned by Swiss developer Allreal Holding to create the performance area and apartments as portion of a new masterplan for Zurich’s Escher Wyss quarter, which overlooks the Limmat river.
Photograph by Georg Aerni
The quick was to refurbish and extend a warehouse created in the early 1900s by Swiss company Escher Wyss, which started out out as a textile spinning business before expanding to produce machinery for textiles, energy turbines and ship steam engines.
Photograph by Georg Aerni
The firm was taken in excess of by a Swiss engineering and manufacturing firm named Sulzer AG in the late 1960s. Because then a number of of its buildings have been repurposed as cultural venues, and this undertaking becomes the most current.
Photograph by Georg Aerni
The authentic facade comprises a mixture of pale beige and red bricks with arched window openings.
Connected story: Crooked concrete wall divides Zurich creating by Christian Kerez into semi-detached houses
E2A employed pale grey bricks to infill these openings and to lengthen the facade upwards.
Photograph by Rasmus Norlander
“The new construction absorbs the existing, infusing it with a porous materiality,” stated E2A’s Pia Simmendinger.
“Only the walls had been kept of the original building, and the former windows are filled with the new, grey brick.”
Photograph by Jan Bitter
This building now homes two rehearsal phases and modifying rooms for the Zurich opera house, as properly as workshops for the production of stage sets.
Photograph by Radek Brunecky
The tapered tower – named Escher Terrace High-Rise Apartments – protrudes from one side of the outdated warehouse. It accommodates 50 apartments organised in eight-metre-large modules.
Photograph by Rasmus Norlander
“By weaving the current industrial components with the residential tower, the creating engages with an uncommon urban predicament, standing slightly offset from the street,” Simmendinger told Dezeen.
Photograph by Rasmus Norlander
The south side of the tower is chamfered, offering a sloping facade that integrates rows of glass-fronted balconies, which supply views above the city centre and Lake Zurich.
Photograph by Rasmus Norlander
“The inclination of the tower decreases the current depth of 25 metres and permits it to produce a terraced housing,” additional Simmendinger.
“The terraces have a south exposure and depart the noisy street in the north behind.”
Photograph by Radek Brunecky
Photography is by Georg Aerni, Rasmus Norlander, Radek Brunecky and Jan Bitter.
Task credits:
Architecture: E2A
Client: Allreal Holding
Team: Wim Eckert, Piet Eckert with Nils Döring and Anna Maria Tosi, Sabine Bayer, Samuel Benz, Daniel Bock, Vesna Brandestini, Carolin Döpfer, Christian Dürr, Cristina Gonzalo Nogués, Bryan Graf, Philipp Heidemann, Harris Iliadis, Aidan Kümmerli, Valentino Sandri, Mireya Sanchez Gomez, Alexander Struck
Collaboration: Artistic Collaboration: Hans-Peter Kistler, Beinwil
General contractor: Allreal Generalunternehmung AG, Zurich
Structural engineering: JägerPartner AG Bauingenieure SIA, Zurich
Landscape consulting: Schmid Landschaftsarchitekten GmbH, Zurich
Facade engineering: Atelier P3 AG, Zurich
Developing physics: Buri Bauphysik & Akustik, Volketswil
MEP: Troxler & Companion AG, Ruswil
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