The concept of the research was based on the will to discover the “most seen zürichness“, so the data was collected on all the buildings surrounding the Limmat, composed of not only residential buildings, but also commercial and office buildings. The aim was to find in the GAN training some free-standing building shapes. Seven levels high, this GAN result will be higher than most of the buildings in Zürich Altstadt. This plot is free-standing, there are passages on both sides, these paths leading to the inner courtyard. The particularity of this proposal is that all the windows come out of the facade to create another dynamism. One other element that can be highlighted is this inclined window allowing a special quality of light in some spaces. As the building is located in the center of the old town of Zurich, the idea for the program was to create an autonomous building. The concept is based on three verbs; to live, to create and to exhibit.
The main idea is to have a certain cycle inside the building, so artists will come there to live for a certain amount of time, longer (1 year) or shorter (2-3 months). Each apartment has, at least, one bedroom and one atelier room, a space to practice art, music, etc… In addition to these private creative spaces, a big openspace workshop is open to every inhabitant. The gallery, spread over four floors, is the ideal place to exhibit not only the artists living in the building, but also external ones.The ground floor of this building is composed of three main elements.On one side the coffeeshop, located northwards, towards the busy street of Niederdorf. In the middle, there are two entrances, allowing the inhabitants to access the main stair from both sides. And in the south side of the building, in a nice quiet arborized courtyard, the hall of the gallery is situated, enabling the exhibition to take advantage of this nice piazza.
The building structure is composed by an inner reinforced concrete wall, the slabs are laid on some concrete bed frames. The aim is to have a floor allowing the most flexibility possible. The separating walls on each floor are made of wooden panels, very easy to change, depending on the wills and the needs of the artists living there. Every element, like windows, furniture, partition walls are made of wood.