2023 / 2019

EICHSTRASSE MULTIFAMILY HOUSE
New Storey and Renovation
Project Design & Construction Management for raumfalter Architekten

Wiedikon. City of Zürich
Total area: 1780 m2
Client: Green Family

lift tower & balconies – hand-drawn sketch

This multi-family house, built in 1931, is the middle house of a tripartite building located in Zürich – Wiedikon, a district which is undergoing constant growth.

The client’s request was to refurbish the existing apartments (eight in total) and dismantle the two under-roof apartments in order to build a maisonette on the 4th floor. To facilitate access to the maisonette, it was decided to build a lift tower attached in the middle of the courtyard façade reinforcing the symmetrical axis of the ensemble. As an outdoor expansion for the existing apartments, two side balconies to the lift tower were planned on each floor. In this way, the lift tower and balconies form a sculptural element that suggests a play of contrast and analogy with the existing building. A contrast from the material point of view, concrete on plaster, and analogy from the formal point of view, as the balconies take up the curved edges of the existing façades of the complex. Structurally, it was necessary to demolish the middle bearing brick wall and to rebuild it in reinforced concrete. The wooden beam ceilings were reinforced with perimetric steel profiles and multi-layered timber panels. The structural reinforcement work allowed not only the construction of the maisonette on top of the bulding, but it also prevents problems that could be caused by seismic movements. At the urban level, the façades of the new storey respect the composition and materiality of the existing façades below and, due to the central position in the three partite building, enhance the value of the whole.