Warehouse, Wiedikon
Zurich, Switzerland 2019–2021
Client: Private client
This project is located near the Bahnhof Wiedikon in a mixed part of Zurich where an excellent art gallery, a designer furniture store, and a Hasidic synagogue are all a minute’s walk away. The original building is a warehouse and depot that was purpose-built for a Zurich-based publisher in the 1940s, and is now inhabited by the third generation of the same family.
The building is a simple, almost cubic volume; a stucco-clad concrete structure with a grid of generous square windows that turn the corner from the modest street, into a world of inner yards and work. We have lightly restored the existing structure, replacing the services and restoring the beautifully made double-layer windows that now close tight, and which could never be made so efficient and useful with contemporary window systems.
The new construction is a new roof built almost to the limits of what is permitted by the planning regulations; a steep volume that rises up from the eaves along the street, to make a new broad façade facing south towards the rear yard. This volume is made with an engineered timber structure that was assembled on site in a few days. This new top storey is clad in long sheets of natural anodised aluminium, with a single, very wide window that spans the new south-facing façade. The window has one sliding section and a deep balcony clad in the same glass. All of new structures – the big living room at the top and the room dividing storage units on the second floor – are clad in timber that has been coated with a thin skin of silver pigment. The interiors of the shelves and cupboards are more intensely pigmented in a series of five colours. A long kitchen unit is suspended in front of the big window and incorporates a moving light that can illuminate the kitchen, the living room, or both.
Following the works, the graphic design studio that used to be in the roof has replaced the ground-floor cycle repair shop; the first-floor book collector is now a shared working space; and the second floor flat has been expanded onto the newly constructed third floor.











Drawings

Location plan

Ground floor plan

First floor plan

Second floor plan

Third floor plan

Roof plan

North elevation

East elevation

South elevation
Furniture details

Storage

Kitchen

Library

Bookcase

Dining table

Lighting
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Caruso St John's work on a 1940’s industrial building has created new working and living spaces for a young family. The project lightly repairs the existing almost cubic building. The new construction is a new roof built almost to the limits of what is permitted by the planning regulations, a steep volume that rises up from the eaves along the street to make a new broad façade facing south towards the rear yard.
The renovation of a 1940’s industrial building in Wiedikon nears completion, with the installation of its windows.
Credits
Location
Zurich, Switzerland
Date
2019-2021
Client
Private client
Area
565m²
Caruso St John Architects
Adam Caruso, Peter St John, Michael Schneider, Florian Zierer
Project architects
Patrick Arnold (2019-2020), Christoph Hayn (2020-2021)
Project team
Cristiano Zan, Paula Holtmann
Structural engineer
Timbatec Holzbauingenieure Schweiz AG
Building physics / acoustics
EK Energiekonzepte AG
HLK
Reu GmbH
Electrical engineer
EK Engeriekonzepte
Cost consultant
WT Partner AG
Fire consultant
Timbatec Holzbauingenieure Schweiz AG
Construction management
WT Partner AG
Photography
Philip Heckhausen
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