Municipal building in Richterswil

Client

Community of Richterswil

Task

Municipal building with private housing and commercial building

Staff Members

Florian Schweizer

Status

Competition design 2009

Three different kinds of construction converge at the edge of the old district. The lack of a building on the property intended for development which is able to mediate between these styles creates a certain void. The project does not aim to resolve this situation on every single side, but rather opens up a dialogue. It refers explicitly to the structure for the core zone in particular, which begins with the representative facades and develops moving towards the back.
This means that a representative facade is created on the key street, and from there, the structure evolves in a movement that sweeps towards the back.

The entire idea behind the structure is based on this sweeping movement towards the back of the property, which is disrupted by an offset: the place where the typological structure and supporting structure are overlaid features the main stairwell, which makes this particular part of the building something that people can experience in spatial terms.

The facades consist of the representative facade, its counterpart at the back, and the lateral facades in between. The entire municipal administration is expressed as one unit in the representative facade, which is given greater priority than in the presentation of commercial and residential purposes.