Swiss Life Arena

Zurich, Switzerland 2012–2022

Client: ZSC Lions Competition, first prize

The commission for the Swiss Life Arena was won in a competition organised by the City of Zurich in partnership with the ZSC Lions ice hockey club. The building contains a 12,000-seat arena that will be the home for the team, as well as a practice rink, a business centre, a large club restaurant and car parking. The site in Altstetten is located at the edge of the city, in a place where the urban structure has run out. The new arena marks the approach to the city with a public building that makes a festive place for ice hockey.

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Drawings

Drawings 1

Site plan

Drawings 2

Ground floor plan

Drawings 3

Third floor

Drawings 4

Seventh floor

Drawings 5

West elevation

Drawings 6

South elevation

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Long section

Drawings 8

Cross section

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Arcade elevation

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Cross section detail

Drawings 11

Cross section detail

Façade

Façade 1

Façade detail

Façade 2

Façade cladding detail

Façade 3
Façade 4

Façade mock-up

References

References 1

Koppartälten, Hagaparken, Solna kommun, L. J. Desprez, 1790

References 2

Queen Louise’s bedroom, Charlottenburg Palace, Berlin, Germany

References 3

The River Eunoë, John Flaxman, 1807

Related news

Victory!

ZSC Lions win Swiss National Hockey League

Zurich, Switzerland

30th April 2024

The ZSC Lions have been crowned champions of the Swiss National Hockey League after defeating rivals Lausanne HC in front of a home crowd at the Swiss Life Arena.

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The Swiss Life Arena is featured in Casabella 944. Federico Tranfa introduces the project and discusses its key references – the ruins of an ancient mosque in Syria and the 18th century Guards Tent in the gardens of the summer palace at Drottingholm in Stockholm.

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The Swiss Life Arena is reviewed in the March edition of Werk, Bauen WohnenBenjamin Muschg takes in the atmosphere at a sold-out game, as the ZSC Lions triumph over HC Davos, and describes the building's unconventional organisation and approach to minimizing energy consumption in use.

Maik Novotny visits Caruso St John's Zurich office to discuss the new arena for the ZSC Lions ice-hockey team and, despite the scale of its most recently completed project, discovers the practice's long-term interest and growing commitment to projects that prioritise renovation and adaptive re-use over new construction.

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Caruso St John's newly opened Swiss Life Arena is reviewed in Hochparterre. Deborah Fehlmann explores the project's materiality and composition, touching on its fabric inspired façade and efficient internal organisation.

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Opening

Swiss Life Arena

18th October 2022

The Zurich Lions Ice Hockey team will play their inaugural match tonight at the newly opened Swiss Life Arena. Located in Altstetten, at the north-western edge of the city, the 12,000 seat, 70,000m² arena is Caruso St John's largest building to date.

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Publication

Archithese
Swiss Performance 2023

Zurich, Switzerland

archithese.ch

The Swiss Life Arena features in Swiss Performance 2023, Archithese's round-up of the best Swiss architectural projects from the past 12 months.

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Adam Caruso will be in conversation with Casabella’s editor Federico Tranfa at the Theatro Milano for the magazine’s annual lecture series. The discussion will focus on the design process, exploring projects like the recently completed Swiss Life Arena.

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A publication charting the 14 year process of designing and building the Swiss Life Arena has been published by Park Books.

The book is by CCTM Real Estate & Infrastructure AG, with contributions by Ariana Pradal, Marco Keller, and Claudia Kaufmann-Morf, as well as photographs by and Philip Heckhausen.

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Michael Schneider spoke to Jonathan Jaeggi of Hochparterre's Sach & Krach podcast, about the recently completed Swiss Life Arena. The two discuss the building's strong façade, its complex planning and construction alongside the importance of injecting humour into architecture.

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Under construction

Swiss Life Arena

Zurich, Switzerland

The Swiss Life Arena is in its final stages of work. The new home for the ZSC Lions ice hockey team will open to the public in Autumn 2022.

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Exhibition

Archetypes at Das Gelbe Haus

Flims, Switzerland

19th December 2021 - 18th April 2022

dasgelbehausflims.ch

David K. Ross' Mock Up exhibition, featuring Caruso St John's Swiss Life Arena, has moved to the Yellow House in Flims. The exhibition shown previously at S AM presents his Archetypes photographic series, which examines the role of mock ups in the design process.

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Under construction

Swiss Life Arena

Zurich, Switzerland

Caruso St John's Zurich office visited the Swiss Life Arena at the end of 2021. Construction continues on the new home for the ZSC Lions ice hockey team and is set to be completed in Spring.

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Exhibition

Archetypes at the Schweizerisches Architkturmuseum

Basel, Switzerland

28th August - 31st October

sam-basel.org

David K. Ross' photographic series, Archetypes will be exhibited at the Swiss Architecture Museum in Basel from the 28th August to the 31st October. Façade mock-ups for Caruso St John's Swiss Life Arena feature as part of exhibition.

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Under construction

Swiss Life Arena

Zurich, Switzerland

Enormous steel roof trusses are being craned into position at the Swiss Life Arena in Zurich. The roof structure will be in place within the month and the building will top-out before the end of Summer. Construction is set to complete in Spring and the building will open to the public in Summer 2022.

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In Conversation

David K. Ross, Archetypes

23 June 2021

baltsprojects.com

Façade mock-ups for Caruso St John's Swiss Life Arena have been photographed as part of Canadian artist David K. Ross' new publication Archetypes. 

Hosted by BALTS Projects, Caruso St John's Tibor Bielicky will be in conversation with Ross about the project, on Wednesday 23rd June 2021, 18:30 (MSEZ).

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Under construction

Swiss Life Arena

Zurich, Switzerland

Construction continues on the new home for the ZSC Lions ice hockey team. The main arena is taking shape, with all its in-situ concrete poured and the pre-cast elements being put into place.

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30th anniversary event

CSTJ30: Yesterday and Today

Live-stream from London

19 November 2020

architecturefoundation.org.uk

Caruso St John Architects celebrates 30 years in practice with a new website, Instagram, and a special online event hosted by the Architecture Foundation.

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Under construction

Swiss Life Arena

Zurich, Switzerland

Construction continues on the Swiss Life Arena, the new home for the ZSC Lions ice hockey team, and Caruso St John's largest project to date. The in situ concrete exposed shell of the building is currently being built and the project is set to complete in 2022.

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Project Update

Swiss Life Arena

Zurich, Switzerland

Construction continues at the new Swiss Life Arena in Zurich.

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Groundbreaking

Swiss Life ZSC Lions Arena

Zurich, Switzerland

swisslifearena.ch

A groundbreaking ceremony was held on the site of the new Swiss Life Arena for the ZSC Lions ice hockey team, celebrating the start of construction.

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Competition

ZSC Lions Arena

Zurich, Switzerland

Zurich city council has granted preliminary legal and financial approval to the project for a new ice hockey arena for the ZSC Lions.

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Credits

Location
Altstetten, Zurich, Switzerland

Date
2012–2022

Client
ZSC Lions Arena Immobilien AG

Construction cost
169m CHF

Area
71,300 m²

Caruso St John Architects
Adam Caruso, Peter St John, Michael Schneider, Florian Zierer

Project architect
Adriana Müller

Project team
Natalija Bajovic, Christof Bedall, Leo Bettini, Tibor Bielicky, Pauline Delorme, Paul Eckert, Rafael Fernandes Trindade, Pierre Chèvremont, Svenja Gubler, Philipp Knorr, Leslie Rahel Majer, Annina Meier, Argel Padilla, Alina Pinardi, Jan Pisani, Kim Pløhn, Moritz Pürckhauer, Ignasi Sarria, Joel Schärer, Jonas Schöpfer, David Vincent, Hannah v. Knobelsdorff, Nora Walter, Carmino Weber, Marie Wichard, Anastasia Zharova

Structural engineer
Ferrari Gartmann AG

Services engineers
Kalt & Halbeisen Ingenieurbüro AG, Amstein & Waltert

Cost consultant
PBK AG

Project manager
CSTJ-PBK

Client project manager
CCTM consulting AG

Electrical engineer
Enerpeak AG

Façade engineer
Neuschwander & Morf AG

Building physics
BAKUS Bauphysik & Akustik GmbH

Landscape architect
Antòn Landschaft GmbH

Main contractor
HRS Real Estate AG

Concrete contractors
Marti AG, Barizzi AG