Residential Housing PeninsulaWädenswil

Built as an actual factory island, the peninsula in Wädenswil was characterized by the textile industry until the mid-1970s. On the Giessen grounds, preserved along with the dominant manufacturing building are also work halls, the director’s villa, and several lodging houses at the back of the area. An upscale residential development will arise on the area. The plan calls for conversion of the existing structures and development of supplemental buildings. Following the commissioned study, the east-facing part of the area will be further developed.

The buildings refer to both qualities of the evolved site and spatial relations to the natural environment – the interplay of moods characterizes the site’s exclusivity. Two buildings, shaped in the geometry of the area, structure the plot as an independent complex. Through gradation and layering of the volumetry, the two buildings grow to a single arrangement, which extends to the boat club’s building. Open horizontality on the lakefront side and verticality on the slope-facing side, distinguish the building volume’s physical appearance and shape the living atmosphere.

The back facade oriented toward Zimmerberg is, mainly, massively developed.Only individually set window openings and open atriums in front break the walllike effect. On the lakeside, the shell reduces to horizontally projecting platforms. The horizon of the lake transfers to the building’s horizontal alignment. Simply fine, vertical facade profiling trace and structure the volume on the lakeside. The realization of individual wishes leads to a diversity of vertically as well as horizontally combinable apartment types. The wellness area housed in the connecting structure, with an immediate relation to the lake, further identifies the complex’s exclusivity. As reference to the existing industrial structures, sculpturally shaped brick frieze superimposes the massive building shell and formally weaves the two sides together. The existing rows of poplars contrast ideally with the horizontal alignment at the lakefront. Trees with projecting crowns and a screening effect interweave with the open building structure on the backside. A leafy canopy lends intimacy to the entryways and front gardens.