Archinect - News

Appels Architekten designs prefabricated wooden home in Bavaria

2023-03-28T14:49:00-04:00

Zurich-based firm Appels Architekten has designed an open, simplistic family home in Bavaria, Germany, composed of wooden cubes.

Called “House by the Lake,” the home balances privacy and spaces for gathering. As detailed by the architects, this configuration allows residents to retreat or participate in communal living at any time.

Photo © Florian Holzherr

All of the private rooms are housed within a sculpture of wooden volumes. Ample open space is made available both horizontally and vertically, drawing light into the house and offering views into the garden and surrounding environment. These features are maximized through the house’s generous ceiling height, light interiors, and expansive windows.

Photo © Florian Holzherr

Mariam Kamara highlights a diverse group of new faculty appointments at the ETH Zurich

2022-08-17T13:23:00-04:00

Renowned West African architect Mariam Kamara will be among twelve new professors joining the faculty of the ETH Zurich, the school announced on its website late last month.

Her appointment represents a “turning point” for the ETH, as the school’s faculty is now predominantly female for the first time in its history. She is joined by another new full-time appointment to the department, Maria Conen, who had previously been on the faculty as an adjunct professor of architecture and housing.

Kamara’s previous academic experience has included stops at Brown and the Harvard GSD, where she was the Aga Khan critic for 2021. Kamara’s practice atelier masōmī is well-regarded across the design world for her innovative work surrounding memory, the elevation of non-Western architectural traditions, vernacular design, and placemaking. Recently she was named as an honorary fellow by the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada.

Previously on Archinect: Mariam Kamara on the higher aspirations of...

Christ & Gantenbein completes "Lindt Home of Chocolate" for Swiss chocolatier

2020-09-14T13:20:00-04:00

Swiss architecture firm Christ & Gantenbein has completed the new "Lindt Home of Chocolate" for Lindt & Sprüngli, the Swiss chocolatier founded in 1845. The new facility is located near Lake Zurich on the outskirts of Zurich and includes a factory, warehouses, an office building, and the new gateway to the Lindt Home of Chocolate, which is operated by the Lindt Chocolate Competence Foundation.

Moreover, the new Home of Chocolate features an interactive exhibition about chocolate, a research and development facility "for the future of chocolate recipes," a production plant, a chocolate shop, a cafe, and offices, all of which are interconnected by spiral stairways and dynamic walkways that span through an expansive atrium space.

The architecture sits as a simple industrial box. The facade consists primarily of red brick, playing off of the aesthetic of its surroundings. At the south-eastern corner is a cut-out that creates an imposing void to add a level of complexity and character to...

Freeway underpasses are more than just dark empty spaces

2018-10-01T17:45:00-04:00

The space under elevated highways are often dark, industrial, and empty. With so much capacity to create a vibrant public space, organizations and cities are exploring ways for creative development in the otherwise unused area.

Underpasses are often overlooked for their building potential, but cities like Toronto and Zurich are redefining the creative opportunity of these spaces. Underpass design is a great way for cities to enrich these often vacant industrial spaces and create areas for community engagement and activity.

In Toronto for example, The Bentway is a public space that made its public debut earlier this year. Under one of the busiest highways in Toronto, The Bentway spans over 1.75km creating a new scene for events and activities. Locals can enjoy a stroll through the community garden, enjoy public art shows, and participate in various events through out the year.

Photo courtesy of www.thebentway.ca

Zurich has taken its own approach to underpass design by allowing architecture students to design a 240-square-meter pavilion. This space allows for students to run events during the year and promote public engagement.

Photo © Anna Positano

Watch these robots build a timber house structure in Switzerland

2018-03-30T14:57:00-04:00

A team of researchers from Swiss university ETH Zurich is to use robots to help assemble prefabricated timber modules into a 100 sq m, three-storey house. [...] The robots use information from a CAD model to cut and arrange the beams, then drill holes and connect them. Human workers bolt the beams together.

Photo: NCCR Digital Fabrication / Roman Keller

The Spatial Timber Assemblies robotic research project, with support from Switzerland's National Centre of Competence in Research Digital Fabrication, is the first large-scale architectural application for the construction robots at the new Robotic Fabrication Laboratory at the ETH Zurich.

Photo: NCCR Digital Fabrication / Roman Keller

"Unlike traditional timber frame construction, Spatial Timber Assemblies can manage without reinforcement plates because the required rigidity and load-bearing result from the geometric structure," the NCCR project description explains.

Photo: NCCR Digital Fabrication / Roman Keller

"Not only does this save material; it also opens up new creative possibilities. A total of six spatial, geometrically unique timber modules will be prefabricated in this way for the first time. Lorries will then transport them to the DFAB HOUSE construction site at the NEST in Dübendorf, where they will be joined to build a two-...

First-year students in Zurich build a 240 square meter installation in less than 10 days

2017-06-06T17:01:00-04:00

Located under a freeway overpass in Zurich, next to the Toni-Areal which houses the University of Arts and the Zurich University of Applied Sciences, is a new 240 square meter public architectural installation. The project has been carried out by ALICE (Atelier de la Conception de l’Espace) laboratory, an active unit of the EPFL-ENAC (School of Architecture, Civil and Environmental Engineering) that pursues research activities at the intersection of architecture, urban thinking and social sciences.

The installation was carried out by 200 first-year students and was erected in under 10 days. The students prefabricated all the built elements in Lausanne, where ENAC is located, and transported them in shipping containers to Zurich, where ALICE has been partnering with the Zurich University of Arts. The full-size, ephemeral structure, is comprised of 12 various contributions from the students and reflects numerous voices and spatial approaches. The project is meant to question the qualit...

Zaha Hadid transforms Zurich gallery in homage to artist Kurt Schwitters

2016-06-17T14:03:00-04:00

Upon first glance, the “Kurt Schwitters: Merz” exhibition is an enticing haven of artistic talent. The retrospective opened earlier this week at the Galerie Gmurzynska in Zurich. An exhibition involving Zaha Hadid is sure to be a visual treat, whether it's her work that is on display or if she designed an exhibition's setup. Hadid's design for this particular exhibition...is the late architect's homage to Kurt Schwitters' famous Merzbau.

See more photos of the exhibition on Bustler.

The dawn of construction worker robots?

2015-10-22T13:04:00-04:00

Zurich-based architects and roboticists have created the In-situ Fabricator, an autonomous construction robot capable of laying bricks into pre-programmed structures. Designers at the Swiss National Center of Competence in Research (NCCR) Digital Fabrication laboratory believe a future generation of the robot could be used widely on building sites.

According to Mathias Kohler of ETH Zurich, "The benefit from an architectural point of view is that you can really design the construction directly, so you can plan for how it is built instead of designing your plan and then that plan afterwards being converted on the construction site. So it actually changes the paradigm of how you design and build quite fundamentally."

Want to know what else robots are getting up to? Well, you're in luck:

• New Googleplex will be built by robots

• The real-life architecture of "Ex Machina"

• Amsterdam could get a new 3D-printed bridge built by robots

• Flying Robots Monitoring Failing Infrastructure

Get Lectured: ETH Zürich, Spring '15

2015-03-05T13:12:00-05:00

Archinect's Architecture School Lecture Guide for Winter-Spring 2015

Archinect's Get Lectured is back in session! Get Lectured is an ongoing series where we feature a school's lecture series—and their snazzy posters—for the current term. Check back frequently to keep track of any upcoming lectures you don't want to miss.

The next featured poster comes from the ETH Zürich Department of Architecture (D-ARCH) in Switzerland.

Want to share your school's lecture series? Send us your school's lecture series poster and details to connect@archinect.com.

Listed below are upcoming lectures only. Lectures begin at 6 p.m. at the ETH Zürich Hönggerberg Building HIL, Auditorium E4.

Mar 10
Anthony Vidler / Professor - Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture at the Cooper Union, NY; Vincent Scully Visiting Professor of Architectural History - Yale University

Mar 24
Armand Grüntuch and Almut Grüntuch-Ernst / Grüntuch Ernst Architekten - Berlin

Apr 14
Amale Andraos / WORKac; Dean - Columbia University GSAPP

For ...

A tale of two extensions

2014-06-23T14:45:00-04:00

Switzerland’s two largest art museums are building extensions, although Basel is moving faster than its neighbour and sometimes rival, Zürich. In Basel, construction is proceeding apace on the Kunstmuseum’s project, across the street from the original museum. [...] Meanwhile Zürich’s Kunsthaus has become embroiled in a dispute which has halted work this month. The Swiss environmental group Archicultura is objecting, and permission to build is being withheld by a canton court.

Should Cities Reject Bad Transit Until Something Better Comes Along?

2014-04-01T14:07:00-04:00

In city after city, U.S. transit advocates face a similar problem: What to do with bad, or at least less-than-perfect, public transportation proposals? Big transit projects don’t come around every day, and rejecting a proposal, perhaps one with support in high places, in the hopes that something better will come along can leave you with nothing.

Wiel Arets Wins Europaallee ‘Site D’ Competition in Zurich

2013-08-28T13:27:00-04:00

Wiels Arets Architects recently won the competition to design the Europaallee 'Site D' building in Zurich. The building features repurposeful office and retail space with future plans for a conversion into residential units. 'Site D' is described as a key enhancement for the growing district of Europaallee. Construction will begin in 2017.

Sex box - the newest architectural typology?

2013-08-19T11:59:00-04:00

They look like shelters for hikers in a national park, but these wooden sheds in Switzerland have a rather less innocent purpose – they provide a discreet location for men to have sex with prostitutes.

In an attempt to "regulate prostitution, combat pimping and improve security for sex workers", Zurich has opened nine "sex boxes" in the former industrial zone of Zurich. The boxes are accessed by drivers following signed routes, where customers will find up to 40 prostitutes waiting to offer their services.

The boxes prominently display posters advocating safe sex, and provide alarms for the prostitutes to trigger if they feel threatened.

Winner of the Negrellisteg Crossing Competition Announced

2011-04-28T14:03:52-04:00

Paris-based Explorations Architecture, together with engineering firms Flint & Neill and Arup Lighting have won the international competition to design the Negrellisteg crossing, a pedestrian bridge, over the Hauptbahnhof railways in downtown Zurich, Switzerland. The competition was held by the City of Zurich with 12 shortlisted teams.

Chipperfield's Kunsthaus Extension in Zurich UPDATE

2008-11-10T09:02:00-05:00

Some unauthorized images of the Kunsthaus extension in Zurich by David Chipperfield Architects have "leaked" and were published today. See them here | previous post

More images and plans are expected to be published in December.

Chipperfield to build new Kunsthaus in Zurich

2008-11-08T12:05:00-05:00

David Chipperfield has been announced as the winner of the international competition to design an extension to the Kunsthaus (art museum) of Zurich, Switzerland. 214 architecture offices from 22 countries were taking part in this competition. As usually in Zurich only the architect has been announced yet, images and more information is to follow in December. According to the jury, he was voted for by a great majority and it's supposedly a classical Chipperfield. via