Santiago Calatrava adds angular office block to Zurich station
Architect Santiago Calatrava has added a stone and glass office building beside the Stadelhofen Station in Zurich, which includes a multi-level bicycle parking facility.
Named the Haus zum Falken, the eight-storey building sits on a narrow, triangular plot at the eastern end of the Stadelhofen railway station, which was previously updated and expanded by Calatrava in 1990.
Calatrava designed the office building to have a "meandering composition" – cladding its steel and stone form with glass panels that highlight folds in its facade.
"The area around the Haus zum Falken is very familiar to me, as I was involved in the construction of the Stadelhofen Station here for eight years," Calatrava explained.
"Architecture here is more than functional – it is an artistic event in the city," he continued.
"The glass facade forms a meandering composition through the vertical rhythm of profiles and glass."
Solid stone was used to form the building's base, from which the glass facade rises in an arched form.
Flanked by a public square, the building's entrance is sheltered by its upper floors and complete with a glazed front framed by soft-edged stone pillars.
"Subtle stone details extend toward the lower edges of the glass facade, establishing a dialogue between the grounded plinth and the glass body above," Calatrava said.
A curved motif extends to the interior, which opens up to a double-height lobby adorned by a wooden relief and expansive ceiling light.
From here, elevators provide access to the four floors of office space above, and is paired with a staircase provided at the building's opposite entrance.
At this end, the building opens up to a skylit, four-storey atrium where the sculptural stairwell serves as a "dynamic centrepiece that connects all levels".
Each of the upper levels offer column-free office spaces lit by openings across the glazed facade.
Meanwhile, a three-storey public bicycle parking facility provides space for 800 bikes below ground and is accessed via a ramp at ground level.
The Haus zum Falken is complete with a green roof equipped with photovoltaic panels, while the facade acoustics render noise pollution "virtually imperceptible" on the interior, according to the studio.
Recently, Calatrava's steel and glass Gare de Mons station designed as a "monumental bridge" reached completion in Belgium and Holloway Studio unveiled images of its redesign of the UK passenger terminal for LeShuttle's Channel Tunnel service.
The photography is by Ingo Rasp.
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