The dutch practice Wiel Arets Architects has completed the mixed-use buildings ‘Allianz Headquarters’ at the edge of Zurich’s city center. The hybrid program project occupies two buildings, a high-rise, a 20-storey tower and a five-story building, which are linked by a series of bridges that enable the various offices, employee amenities, retail facilities, restaurants, and cafés of the complex to be both easily accessed and fluidly interrelated. the entirety of the lobby and ground floor are open to the public, ensuring a continuous and fluid progression between indoor and outdoor space. a central staircase connects the scheme, rising from the lobby and continuing throughout the structure. a café and restaurant are located on the fifth storey, creating a buffer zone between public and private areas. a business center is located one floor below, containing meeting rooms that enable employees to meet with guests, without the need for elevators.

The main characteristic of the new headquarters of the Allianz company, designed by WAA, that we had brought earlier in its stage built in METALOCUS, is its  full glass façade with an abstracted pattern of Onyx marble –as Mies van der Rohe’s Barcelona Pavilion– which allows the building to blend into its context while simultaneously maintaining a distinguished stance.

The building is truly stunning especially in the middle distance where marble onyx and silver curtains on façade form a pattern and a spectacular vision. The building show us a exquisite workmanship, the building follows the Mies line proposals that characterize the work of Wiel Arets. Surprisingly spectacular without formal boast. Congratulations!

Description of project by WAA

The Allianz Headquarters is a hybrid-office and the pinnacle of a master planned mixed-use district on the edge of Zürich’s city center. Comprised of a 20-story tower and a 5-story annex, these two components are externally linked by a series of four bridges, and vertically linked by numerous interior voids and staircases; as such, the Allianz Headquarters can be experienced as horizontal and vertical landscape of neighborhoods. Fluidly connected to the city center by a multitude of public transportation options, the building encourages the blossoming of twenty-first century office culture, which demands flexibility in space and its use, via its hyper-hybrid programming that amplifies ‘interiority’.

The entire lobby and ground floor are publicly accessible, ensuring a continuous animation throughout both, which compliments the adjacent public square. A central staircase rises from the lobby up and into the 20-story tower, allowing employees to, if desired, meander throughout all levels of the office without entering its core. A café and restaurant are located on the fifth floor, rather than within the lobby, which creates a buffer zone between public and non-public areas. A ‘business center’ is located one floor below, and contains meeting rooms for use with external clients. This ‘business center’ enables employees to meet with their guests, without the need for elevators.

This new district’s master plan mandated that all building façades be composed of natural stone, yet it was chosen to frit this building’s full glass façade with an abstracted pattern of Onyx marble–from Mies van der Rohe’s Barcelona Pavilion–which allows the building to blend into its context while simultaneously maintaining its distinguished stance. Each element of the façade contains a closed cavity system, in which an aluminum coated silver curtain hangs, which fluctuates its degree of shading by responding to external environmental factors–a process administered by a computer controlled algorithm.

Interior heating and cooling occurs through a paneled ceiling system that utilizes concrete core activation and concealed air ventilation. These 1.35 x 1.35 m panels are composed of ‘crumpled’ steel sheets into which a three-dimensional pattern, derived from traditional ornamentation of Swiss chalet eave, has been stamped, which introduces a larger scale to the interior office spaces by decreasing the amount of visible ceiling seams. Micro-perforations in the panels maintain ventilation, allowing for no visible interior air ducts and the placement of an acoustically absorbing sheet on the back of each.

Inhabitable volumes adorn the roof of the lower building, with several garden terraces for employees. These gardens contain a singular red Japanese maple tree, which return in the landscaping of the central courtyard below. Both the 20-story tower and 5-story annex are adjoined underground by a tri-level 300 car parking garage, where most of the extensive IT and mechanical facilities are stored. Similar to a home, the Allianz Headquarters has been infused with espresso corners and lounge like spaces throughout, for instance, its four 8m wide bridges, to stimulate informal conversation within this highly formal working environment.

CREDITS.

Project team.- Wiel Arets, Felix Thies, Maik Ilmer.

Collaborators.- Flavio Loretz, Jörg Lüthke, Ruth Val Garijo, Virginia Angell, Anira Niso, Angela Tsang, Mikal Switalsky, Jacques van Eyck, Maron Vondeling, Christina Lotzemer Jentges, Joost Körver, Ilze Paklone, Alexandra Dobrowowolska, Boris van Eijsden, Joris Lens, Thomas Misik, Lucia Miglio, Hannes Scheutz, Dunia Nedjar, Francois Steul, Alexis Bikos, Athanasia Karaioannoglou, Victor Hidajat, Aline Amore, Birgit Schwarz, Tieme Zwartbol, Boris Wolf, Chris Frodsham, Alessandra Ferrari, Marcos Romero.

Client.- Allreal Generalunternehmung AG, Allianz Suisse.

Consultants.- GKP Fassadentechnik AG, R+B Engineering AG, Ahochn AG, Jäger Partner Bauingenieure AG, GRP Ingenieure, Kardorff Ingenieure.

Location.- Richtiplatz 1, 8034 wallisellen, Switzerland.
Program.- Office.
Size.- 72,000 sqm.
Design.- 2008-2009.
Completed.- Spring 2014.

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Wiel Arets was born in 1955. In 1984 he established Wiel Arets Architect & Associates in his hometown of Heerlen, the Netherlands, after graduating from the Technical University of Eindhoven. From 1984-1989 he extensively travelled throughout North America, Russia and Japan. 1986 he co-founded the architectural journal Wiederhall. In 1988 he began teaching at the AA in London, paving the way for a future in worldwide academic and research-based teaching. In 1993 construction commenced on his design for the Academy of Art & Architecture, in Maastricht, the Netherlands, propelling him into the world of internationally recognized architectural prestige.

Wiel Arets' teaching curriculum vitae includes the world's most important and influential architecture schools and universities, including: the Architectural Academies of Amsterdam and Rotterdam from 1986-1989; the AA of London from 1988-1992; from 1991-1994 he was a visiting professor at The Copper Union and Columbia University in New York, USA, the Hochschule für Angewandte Kunst in Vienna and the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen; from 1995-1998 he was Dean of the Berlage Institute, Postgraduate Laboratory of Architecture in Amsterdam, and held the Berlage Institute Professorship at the Technical University Delft until 2009; in 2004 he accepted tenure professorship at the UdK in Berlin; in 2010 he was the Ruth and Norman Moore Visiting Professor at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, USA. Since 2003 he has served on the advisory board of Princeton University.

Wiel Arets' projects have been bestowed and honored with some of the highest achievements in architecture and product design: the 2010 "Amsterdam Architecture Prize", the 2010 "Good Design Award" for the Alessi products Salt.it, Pepper.it, Screw.it and Il Bagno dOt, the "BNA Kubus Award" for the entire oeuvre in 2005, the "UIA Nomination" as one of "the world’s one thousandth best buildings of the 20th century" for the Academy of Art & Architecture, Maastricht, the "Rietveld Prize" in 2005 for the University Library Utrecht, the "Mies van der Rohe Pavilion Award for European Architecture" with special mention "Emerging Architect" in 1994 for the Academy of Art & Architecture in Maastricht, the "Rotterdam Maaskant Award" in 1989 for the oeuvre, the "Charlotte Köhler Award" in 1988.




 

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Published on: March 26, 2014
Cite: "Wiel Arets finished the Allianz Headquarters" METALOCUS. Accessed
<https://www.metalocus.es/en/news/wiel-arets-finished-allianz-headquarters> ISSN 1139-6415
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