Located in Zürich – Switzerland, is located in the Seefeld Quarter, lying on a superb hillside with optimal sunshine and views overlooking Zurich Lake and the mountains on the horizon.
The unique quality of the site exists due to its extraordinary and park-like landscape surroundings. The bold stand-alone building embodies an innovative conception of interior spatial organization and interaction with the surrounding environment.
The stainless steel mesh enveloping the building combines visual privacy with restrained elegance, while establishing a strong and unmistakable presence and adds a note of subtlety and sophistication to the overall composition.
It caters for a wide variety of workplace and occupancy concepts. With its spiral massing, Cocoon may be conceived as a sort of “communication landscape” that creates a unique spatial configuration and working environment in a matchless setting.
The stepped, upward-winding sequence of segments also shapes the character of the building interior. All spaces are arranged along a gently rising ramp, which wraps around a central, light-flooded atrium.
The space planning concept dispenses with the traditional division into horizontal storeys in favour of a seemingly endless sequence of ellipticalfloor segments.
By eliminating the usual barriers to communication, this generates a unique spatial experience and working environment that unlocks a host of intriguing possibilities for interaction and co-operation.
The floorspace design is occupancy-neutral and provides for fully flexible partitioning together with the adaptability necessary to meet the shifting needs of future users.
Together, the various elements – lift, spiral ramp, segments and stairwell – constitute a clearly structured, versatile circulation system that provides for both the desired interaction and the necessary flexibility to accommodate alternative uses.
Externally, the building adopts the guise of a dynamic, upward-reaching sculpture. The dramatic atrium, with its wealth of internal visual links, generates a natural ambience conducive to communication and a sense of community.
The facade assembly consciously adds a note of subtlety and sophistication to the overall composition. The building is wrapped in a fine, almost scaly veil of stainless steel wire mesh. This curtain curls elegantly upwards in soft lines along the expanding spiral, its junction with the roof terrace accentuated by an open facade frame.
The shrouded, sculptural stand-alone building, introverted during the daytime as it looks inwards towards the atrium, is recast in the evening hours as a transparent shining beacon. Cocoon uses a Air-source heat pump system for environmentally-friendly heating and cooling.
Location: Zürich, Switzerland
Architects: Camenzind Evolution
Project Team: Stefan Camenzind, Marco Noch, Susanne Zenker
Area: 1,900 sqm
Client: Swiss Life
Budget: US $8,800,000
Year: 2006-2007
Photographs: Camenzind Evolution