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Zurich. A residential building by idA Architekten

The Duripanel cladding boards, a composite material made from wood and concrete, are the shimmering skin of an austere, and yet not minimalist architecture.

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  • Alessandro Benetti
  • 21 September 2018
  • Zurich, Switzerland
  • idA Architekten
  • residential building
  • 2018

Over the last decade, architecture critics have been saying and writing a lot on the ornament, and about its rediscovery, re-appropriation and reinvention by designers of different cultural backgrounds and origins. Plentiful examples of this rehabilitation originate in Switzerland. There, already back in 2006 Jacques Herzog could claim that in the frame of his and de Meuron’s poetic “the ornament is not something added on, but becomes one with the production of form”.
The residential building completed in 2018 by idA Architekten in Zurich, within a triangular parcel between Gossauerstrasse and Heuweidlistrasse, certainly stems from a genealogy of architectures avoiding minimalism and constructing their aesthetics also on additions (the pitched roof), exceptions (the portholes lighting up the stairwell) and details (the jagged profile of many window frames).

Zurich. A residential building by idA Architekten The Duripanel cladding boards, a composite material made from wood and concrete, are the shimmering skin of an austere, and yet not minimalist architecture.

idA Architekten, residential building, Zurich, Switzerland, 2018. Photo Valentin Jeck

Zurich. A residential building by idA Architekten The Duripanel cladding boards, a composite material made from wood and concrete, are the shimmering skin of an austere, and yet not minimalist architecture.

idA Architekten, residential building, Zurich, Switzerland, 2018. Photo Valentin Jeck

Zurich. A residential building by idA Architekten The Duripanel cladding boards, a composite material made from wood and concrete, are the shimmering skin of an austere, and yet not minimalist architecture.

idA Architekten, residential building, Zurich, Switzerland, 2018. Photo Valentin Jeck

Zurich. A residential building by idA Architekten The Duripanel cladding boards, a composite material made from wood and concrete, are the shimmering skin of an austere, and yet not minimalist architecture.

idA Architekten, residential building, Zurich, Switzerland, 2018. Photo Valentin Jeck

Zurich. A residential building by idA Architekten The Duripanel cladding boards, a composite material made from wood and concrete, are the shimmering skin of an austere, and yet not minimalist architecture.

idA Architekten, residential building, Zurich, Switzerland, 2018. Photo Valentin Jeck

Zurich. A residential building by idA Architekten The Duripanel cladding boards, a composite material made from wood and concrete, are the shimmering skin of an austere, and yet not minimalist architecture.

idA Architekten, residential building, Zurich, Switzerland, 2018. Photo Valentin Jeck

Zurich. A residential building by idA Architekten The Duripanel cladding boards, a composite material made from wood and concrete, are the shimmering skin of an austere, and yet not minimalist architecture.

idA Architekten, residential building, Zurich, Switzerland, 2018. Photo Valentin Jeck

Zurich. A residential building by idA Architekten The Duripanel cladding boards, a composite material made from wood and concrete, are the shimmering skin of an austere, and yet not minimalist architecture.

idA Architekten, residential building, Zurich, Switzerland, 2018. Photo Valentin Jeck

Zurich. A residential building by idA Architekten The Duripanel cladding boards, a composite material made from wood and concrete, are the shimmering skin of an austere, and yet not minimalist architecture.

idA Architekten, residential building, Zurich, Switzerland, 2018. Photo Valentin Jeck

Zurich. A residential building by idA Architekten The Duripanel cladding boards, a composite material made from wood and concrete, are the shimmering skin of an austere, and yet not minimalist architecture.

idA Architekten, residential building, Zurich, Switzerland, 2018. Photo Valentin Jeck

Zurich. A residential building by idA Architekten The Duripanel cladding boards, a composite material made from wood and concrete, are the shimmering skin of an austere, and yet not minimalist architecture.

idA Architekten, residential building, plan

Zurich. A residential building by idA Architekten The Duripanel cladding boards, a composite material made from wood and concrete, are the shimmering skin of an austere, and yet not minimalist architecture.

idA Architekten, residential building, basement plan

Zurich. A residential building by idA Architekten The Duripanel cladding boards, a composite material made from wood and concrete, are the shimmering skin of an austere, and yet not minimalist architecture.

idA Architekten, residential building, first floor plan

Zurich. A residential building by idA Architekten The Duripanel cladding boards, a composite material made from wood and concrete, are the shimmering skin of an austere, and yet not minimalist architecture.

idA Architekten, residential building, second floor plan

Zurich. A residential building by idA Architekten The Duripanel cladding boards, a composite material made from wood and concrete, are the shimmering skin of an austere, and yet not minimalist architecture.

idA Architekten, residential building, north elevation

Zurich. A residential building by idA Architekten The Duripanel cladding boards, a composite material made from wood and concrete, are the shimmering skin of an austere, and yet not minimalist architecture.

idA Architekten, residential building, south elevation

Zurich. A residential building by idA Architekten The Duripanel cladding boards, a composite material made from wood and concrete, are the shimmering skin of an austere, and yet not minimalist architecture.

idA Architekten, residential building, east elevation

Zurich. A residential building by idA Architekten The Duripanel cladding boards, a composite material made from wood and concrete, are the shimmering skin of an austere, and yet not minimalist architecture.

idA Architekten, residential building, long section

Zurich. A residential building by idA Architekten The Duripanel cladding boards, a composite material made from wood and concrete, are the shimmering skin of an austere, and yet not minimalist architecture.

idA Architekten, residential building, cross section

Zurich. A residential building by idA Architekten The Duripanel cladding boards, a composite material made from wood and concrete, are the shimmering skin of an austere, and yet not minimalist architecture.

idA Architekten, residential building, cross section

Zurich. A residential building by idA Architekten The Duripanel cladding boards, a composite material made from wood and concrete, are the shimmering skin of an austere, and yet not minimalist architecture.

idA Architekten, residential building, collage

Zurich. A residential building by idA Architekten The Duripanel cladding boards, a composite material made from wood and concrete, are the shimmering skin of an austere, and yet not minimalist architecture.

idA Architekten, residential building, collage

The dramatic pictures commissioned by the Swiss firm to Valentin Jeck, taken under the most typically Helvetian dull grey sky, strongly resonate with the fine Duripanel (wood and concrete) cladding boards, and their slight golden shades. This “public image” of the building is somewhat indulgent, as some of the elements mentioned above. It is ultimately a quite self-referential representational strategy for an architecture which, in other respects, stands out for its remarkable spatial clarity and for the above average material quality of both its collective and private spaces.

Read also: idA Architekten renovates a residential building in Zurich, multiplying its spaces through a complex scaffolding of boat-shaped balconies.
idA Architekten, residential building, Zurich, Switzerland, 2018
  • residential building
  • Zurich, Switzerland
  • idA Architekten
  • 2018
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