Miroslav Šik: Residence for the Elderly, Zug

In the inner-Swiss city of Zug, the renowned architect Miroslav Šik was able to convert the Neustadt II schoolhouse into a residence for elderly. The air-raid-shelter was converted into an underground car park. The building from the 1960s was to be expanded, converted and energetically refurbished. The new facade gave the building a completely new appearance. The architect Miroslav Šik opted for an obvious juxtaposition of old and new buildings, creating a new coherent whole. The design for the Neustadt II retirement home complies with the demands of Miroslav Šik to build fewer self-referential objects and to understand the buildings as part of their evolved environment. With his renovation project, he follows the design strategy to continue and the transform the existing urban texture. The environment of the Neustadt II retirement home is characterized by a heterogeneous neighborhood. On tense space the most diverse ideas and developmental trends meet. The original buildings of the so-called “new town” district, which dated from the 19th century, almost completely disappeared. Originally, it was a homogeneous wilhelminian quarter, which was built after 1864 in the area of the first train station of the city of Zug. A distinctive building from 1909 with high tail gables forms the core of the school complex and still characterizes the appearance of the city center. In the years 1966 – 1968 the school complex was extended with the functionalistically designed school building Neustadt II. The replacement of the wilhelminian buildings by commercial buildings led to a structural change, so that the nearly 40-year school extension was free for a conversion. Due to the immediate proximity to a retirement home and due to structural features, the city authorities decided to convert it intoto an old-age apartments.

The transformed building contains a total of 18 retirement apartments. These are located in the two-storey extension and in the upper floors of the original building. On the ground floor there is a doctor’s practice and offices. In the process of the conversion various adjustments were made to the building, whereby the old-age home enters into a volumetric and creative dialogue with the neighboring buildings. The two-storey timber construction basically follows the existing ground plan figure, but gradually recesses on the long sides. These volumetric measures create pleasant, spatial expansions in the tight urban situation. In addition, the proportions of the building are transformed, and the building now sets a new vertical accent instead of the previously horizontal accent on its front façade. This increased the presence of the building in urban fabric. The mentioned gradual recesses also have a positive effect on the natural light exposure of the apartments. The overall strict composition with its serial arrangement of windows is relaxed up by the differentiated cubature and the loggias. In addition, the entrances on the ground floor have a positive effect on the appearance. The entire building has been uniformly plastered and painted in a greenish gray hue, enhancing the monolithic effect. A special feature is the vertical grooved comb structure of the plaster. The plaster work represented a technical challenge. Without interruption, the plaster was applied over the 15 m high façade. Subsequently, the plaster was sanded by hand. The individual windows are highlighted and individualized by bright frames.

The wide corridor inside has the same plaster as the façade. This emphasizes the public character of the circulation area. Each apartment allows a view of the corridor via an interior glazing. Access to the apartments is via an open kitchen. As so often in the floor plans of Miroslav Šik, the access areas are assigned to the rooms. In this case, the living area also takes up the cloakroom and interior circulation area. The apartments, which develop around the loggias, each have one to two bedrooms. One of the bedrooms is connected by a large sliding door with the living room. Benches in front of the individual apartment doors should encourage the residents to adopt the communal space.

With regard to the supporting structure, it was necessary to coordinate the floor plans of the two-storey extension precisely to the existing three-storey school building. For the topping, a lightweight construction in wood element construction was chosen for static reasons, so that no extraordinary static measures were required. The adjustments to the layout of the schoolhouse, which were necessary for the new use, could be realized in a conventional way. On the other hand, the overall conversion of the basement turned out to be a big challenge.

(text source: archipicture.eu)