Koch-Areal residential and commercial timber building

On behalf of Bresga Fenster AG, Blumer Lehmann was responsible for the entire production and assembly of the external walls built in timber, along with the windows. It was a challenging project that could only be successfully accomplished thanks to precision work, meticulous coordination and the necessary workforce.

 

The ground floor and the first floor provide space for studios, workshops, nurseries, shops and restaurants. The six-storey residential building comprises a total of 123 residential units and provides living space for 460 people – a rare commodity in the heart of Zurich. A project of this scale – 111 metres long and eight storeys high – can only succeed if all processes are perfectly coordinated.

The building features a hybrid construction: while the supporting structure, ceilings and roof are made of concrete, the external walls are made from timber. Blumer Lehmann was commissioned to design, produce and assemble the 6 metre-long and 3 metre-high insulated exterior wall elements. Given the building’s six storeys and length of 111 metres, maximum precision and a precisely timed supply chain were essential.

The windows were integrated into the exterior wall elements at the factory. In order to safely support the loads of the heavy glass facades, which were installed on site, the wall elements were reinforced at the factory. All elements were prefabricated at the factory in Gossau and could be fitted directly into the building shell with millimetre precision and exactly according to the schedule.