Two existing buildings on the Ringstrasse are replaced with a long street-accompanying volume. Form, scale and orientation refer to the neighbouring high-rise volumes and also to a nearby highway. The building reacts to the heavy noise pollution with the orientation of the living rooms facing away from the noise source. Appropriately, a covered walkway is proposed as a reference to affordable social housing. Furthermore, the outside spatial arrangement reacts to the conditions of place and achieves a strong connection to the building through geometry and materiality.

The facade has been developed as a spatial, structured relief and refers to the internal load bearing structure. Clinker bricks used as “filling elements” and load bearing plates in various forms lend to the building’s characterful feature. The new compact facade – which is based on a standard acoustic stone – is an innovation, which has been developed in cooperation with Keller brickyards (Pfungen). The new facade system, based on a highly insulated façade, aims to develop a reasonable, long-lasting and robust façade that not in the least fulfill its users needs.

Project Information:

Project: Replaced building on Ringstrasse North
Address: Ringstrasse Nord 15, 5600 Lenzburg, Switzerland
Contract Form: Competition 2008
Construction: August 2012 – August 2014
Client: Wohnbaugenossenschaft Lenzburg
Architect: Boltshauser Architekten AG, Zurich
                Roger Boltshauser
                Project manager: Jan Schlüter
                Team: Thierry Aggeler, Mirjeta Musai
Project management: Marco Zingg, Boltshauser Architekten AG, Zurich

Floor area (SIA 416): 2’641.4 m2 (349.7 underground)
Building volume (SIA 416): 8’169.3 m3 (1’32.0  underground)
Costs BKP 1-9: approx 7`500`000 CHF
Landscape: Mettler Landschaftsarchitektur, Gossau
Static: BKM Ingenieure AG, St. Gallen
Building services: Schüpbach Engineering AG, Zurich
Building Physics: Mühlenbach Partner AG, Wiesendangen
Electrical: IBG B. Graf AG Engineering, Winthertur
Sanitary: sertis engineering, Zurich
Facade: feroplan engineering ag, Zurich
Photographer: Beat Bühler, Zurich
                        Kuster Frey, Luzern