Oberdorfstrasse

Wädenswil, Switzerland

Photo © Fischer Architekten AG

Architects: Fischer Architekten AG

Location: Oberdorfstrasse 32, 8820 Wädenswil, Switzerland
Year: 2022
Client: Ernst Hürlimann AG

Study commission 1st prize – In the core zone of Wädenswil space was made for a new building that, alongside apartments of different sizes, also contains offices and commercial functions. The central staircase and a loadbearing facade allow flexibility of use over the long-term.
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The site on Oberdorfstrasse in Wädenswil lies on the edge of municipality’s disparate core zone. The central location offers a view of the lake and morning sun and of the Sihlwald in the evening sun. The existing development in the immediate surroundings is largely heterogeneous. Just three neighbouring buildings on Oberdorfstrasse offer a sense of identity, and it is to these that the new replacement building therefore refers.

With its unusual volume and materials, the building forms a new visible start to the main street. It takes up the staggered eaves lines and the hole-in-the wall fenestration of its neighbouring buildings. In this way and thanks to its rounded corners the new building blends gently into the existing street.

The structural design of the new building with its loadbearing facade and just four columns as well as the staircase in the core maximises its possible functions and will continue to allow a high degree of flexibility in many years’ time. An incline on the courtyard side is ideally exploited, creating an attractive quality of light in the rooms on the lower floors, too, which can used, for example, as apartments with a gallery or as individual offices.