Graber Pulver Architekt:innen . photos: © Georg Aerni . + baunetz
Energy is produced through waste and wood incineration at Im Hagenholz (Zurich North).
This heat is transported via a newly constructed underground connection line to the Josefstrasse energy center.
For five years, the former waste incineration plant here was converted into an energy center while in operation.
Its function is the storage and additional processing of thermal energy and the supply of district heating to the districts of Industrie and Aussersihl.
In addition to the technical-functional requirements of the demanding transformation, it was necessary to answer questions about the urban-volumetric integration into the current residential quarter and the architectural design of the building envelope.
The supporting structure of concrete and steel, partly existing, partly new, is clad with a shell of bluish cast glass.
Belt strips in mill-finished aluminum hold the glass panels and encompass the building body . Offsets in the vertically layered façade refer to the complex stacking of the spaces and machines hidden in the volume.
At night, lighting renders the structure as a delicate play of shadows on the glass surface.
The building becomes the architectural crystallization of the urban infrastructure network.·
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