oxid Architektur (ehemals burkhalter sumi architekten)
Stadthalle
best architects 21
office/administrative buildings
Place
Zurich, Switzerland
Photos
Heinz Unger
Description
Built in 1906, the Stadthalle
was for many years part of civic and political life in Zurich. The installation
of a parking garage in 1949 resulted in drastic changes to the building’s
structure. During the building’s most recent conversion to serve as the head
office of Switzerland Tourism, both these periods were referenced as
constituent elements and aligned with the needs of the new tenant. The image-enhancing
passage leading into the building features an imposing, circular hinged gate
and has been recreated as a golden, tunnel-like entrance tube. Inside the
former hall, there are two ceiling cut-outs beneath the refurbished skylights,
which serve as atria and allow daylight to penetrate centrally into the
building all the way down to the ground floor. The topmost garage ceiling has
been pared back along its entire length to reveal the transition between the
wall and the characteristically arched, frescoed ceiling; this also once more
makes tangible the space of the original horizontal gallery. The removal of the
garage ceilings across the width of the arches in front of the proscenium arch
and the eastern façade restores the hall’s original feeling of spaciousness
from floor to ceiling. These are also the areas where the two impressive
vertical connecting elements have been installed; firstly, the sinuous,
serpentine ramp and secondly, the glass lift that travels through the
three-storey space like a piston. In the former stage area, the façade has been
opened between the lesenes to allow in daylight for the work stations and
box-like meeting rooms.