Carving an Identity

Project: Community Center, 2017 
Location: Unterengstringen, Switzerland
Architect: Tilla Theus und Partner AG
Manufacturer: Scherrer Metec AG 
Product: Laser-cut aluminum facade 
Contractor: Allreal Generalunternehmung AG 
Facade: Scherrer Metec AG 

Unterengstringen is about halfway between Zurich and Baden, situated at the intersection of the A1 and A3 motorways. With strong transportation links, the town is just a stone's throw away from Zurich and therefore a popular residential area, with forests and recreation areas. Regardless, there is still a strong village atmosphere, one that inhabitants strongly identify with the place. So, for architect Tilla Theus, the task to build a new community center here meant dealing intensively with the place and its identity. It was important to find an architectural language that did not copy the old, but that uses contemporary methods to unite tradition and progress. Theus expressed this union through form and materials.

The site was previously occupied by a large barn or warehouse from 1929 that had a generous roof overhang facing the road, under which cargo vehicles could be loaded and protected from the rain. Theus took up this theme in her design and folded in the outer walls on the long sides of the rectilinear building to create overhangs that cast angular shadows across the facades. The gable end on the west side features a striking pediment with a large window, a reference the architect brought from Graubünden.

The focal point of the design, apart from its sculpted rectilinear form, is the facade. It consists of two layers, the outer layer cut with symbols from the town. The anodized aluminum shingles have a lazer-cut pattern in the form of a plowshare and vine knife, just like the coat of arms of Unterengstringen, which dates back to 1734. The result is a filigree dress that, in conjunction with the red aluminum surface behind it, creates a three-dimensional facade with varied shadow play. The manufacture and assembly of the aluminum facade was done by Scherrer Metec, a Swiss company with over 120 years of experience in facade and metal engineering. The design demanded high accuracy, particularly at the corners, where the pattern continues uninterrupted, like a fabric wrapped around the building.

The windows pick up the sweep in the patterned facade and complete it into oval openings. Finally, the interior has a formal and material clarity, a kind of artistic counterpart to the exterior -- perhaps a reference to the reduction that prevails in Swiss architecture. Inside and out, architect Tilla Theus has succeeded in constructing a building that, through its characteristic ornamentation, stands fully in the tradition of its setting yet continues to look into the future.

A version of this article originally appeared as "Ornamentales Kleid" on German-Architects.