Eisgasse House by Max Dudler (IV)
29/09/2013.
Europaallee 21; new building for the UBS AG bank, [Zurich] Switzerland
metalocus, ALEX DURO
metalocus, ALEX DURO
Recently we have brought you the buildings of the architectural firms David Chipperfield Architects, Gigon / Guyer and the first of the two buildings of Max Dudler for the Europaallee21 in Zurich.
The Eisgasse House is the last of those buildings. Connected between them with a generous corridor in the first floor, this buildings generate and inner courtyard with public access through several façade voids.
The building is understood as a big massive stone block from where it is extracted several parts for generating the windows, whose frames are hidden behind the stone, showing only this stone and the glass as façade materials. With this strategic is achieved to generate this rough regularity well represented by the materials and its colours.
Memory of project by Max Dudler
Max Dudler’s Eisgasse House, situated on the south-west corner of the ensemble, has been conceived as a stone building. A cladding of massive cast stone sections conceals the window frames, thereby making only two materials visible in the façade: dark green cast stone and glass. Through the addition of local alpine stone of variegated grain (white marble, black basalt, alpe verde), the dressed stone façade shows a diversity of detail and depth depending on the viewing distance. This gives the impression that the regularly-spaced façade openings have been cut sharply from a monolithic mass, thereby lending the building an imposing gravitas.
Both the staff restaurant, MEAL 21, located on the first floor, as well as the staff restaurant below, EASY 21, facing the courtyard, have been designed by Max Dudler. Their black wall panels set a tone of sobriety and nobility. When seen from the courtyard in particular, the ground floor restaurant appears as a harmonious whole, due to the combination of fine cherrywood furniture and the veneered cherrywood counter, which dominates the space like a sculpture. The restaurant furniture is from the “Black Monday” series, designed by Max Dudler for horgenglarus.
Max Dudler, born in Altenrhein in Switzerland. He studied architecture at Architektur an der Städelschule in Frankfurt with the professor Günther Bock and in the Hochschule der Künste Berlin with the professor Ludwig Leo. At first he worked in the Oswald Matías Ungers office after working with Pete and Karl Dudler in 1986 establishing its own office.
Since 1992 leads its own architectural firm with headquarters in Berlin, Zurich and Frankfurt. After being visiting professor in Venice, Mantua, Vienna or Dortmund, Max Dudler was selected in 2004 as professor of architecture at the Klasse Baukunst der Kunstakademie Düsseldort.