Caruso St John

Düngerbau . Uetikon am See

Caruso St John Architects . photos: © René Dürr

Built in 1896, the Düngerbau is a part of the historic Chemical Factory Uetikon that has occupied the site on the bank of Lake Zurich since the middle of the 19th century. The building formerly produced fertilisers using chemicals that were so aggressive that timber was the only material sufficiently resistant to form its elaborate structure.Within a site strategy that we developed for the client, to introduce new housing and workspace onto this large lakeside site, the Düngerbau building, along with a proposed new school to the west, provides the public focus for the area. The programme has been developed in partnership with the local authority, and in addition to workshops, offices and places to eat, a large multifunctional public meeting hall is placed at the centre of the ground floor.

The project preserves and restores the whole of the existing timber structure and enclosing masonry perimeter walls. The pattern of relieving arches in the external walls are opened up to provide a regular pattern of windows so that more light enters the interior. The 8-metre-high ground floor is retained, and a new timber floor is inserted into the large upper volume of the interior. This new structure is supported by the existing vertical structure with new supports where they are required. The new floor incorporates three large circular cutouts that encircle the existing A-frame structural elements and allow light and visual connections between the two upper levels of the building. The design preserves and extends the incredible strategy of masonry and timber hybrid structures that is already so powerful in the existing structure.
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