spillmann echsle architekten

Description

The 123 m long building is located on Kasernenstraße near the Zurich main station. The shell of the protected Sihlpost, a reinforced concrete structure with beamless floor slab and mushroom ceilings of 26 cm spanning up to 9.5 m, was the work of the Swiss engineer Robert Maillart. It is one building of the Europaallee and was developed by the SBB (Swiss Federal Railways), renovated and converted into rentable commercial premises. The IT company Google is further expanding its location in Zurich with a focus on engineering. A total area of around 60,000 square metres in the Europaallee will be leased by Google over the course of the next four years. The first phase is the Sihlpost with an interior fit-out over four floors and a surface area of 5,400 square metres for 300 workstations. In addition to office space, around 30 meeting rooms, a restaurant, 3 microkitchens (break rooms for informal discussions) and a lecture room for around 100 people were built. The architectural concept spans both the typology of post office buildings and of logistics. The post office style of the reception and restaurant incorporates wooden panelling, wooden framed partition walls with rippled glass and brass features, while the meeting rooms resemble wooden shipping crates that simultaneously separate each level into quiet workzones from the long service corridor. The coordination and integration of paritally visable building services and architectural design is of great importance.