Eating in and out: a crisply dressed restaurant complex smoothly elides interior and exterior, and provides a rich variety of particular spaces for social interaction - Interior Design

Architectural Review, The, May, 2003

The lunch complex that Camenzind Grafensteiner have built in Zurich for the Swiss headquarters of Siemens, the electrical giant, caters for 700 people at a time, both staff and general public. It contains three restaurants and a cafeteria, in plan, three strips of accommodation are joggled to provide terraces, privacy and contact with the surrounding landscape. The main space, which runs along almost the whole south side of the building, contains two of the largest eating places: Move, a self-service restaurant catering for 350 people, and the rather more formal 150 seat Relax, which is separated from Move by a glazed screen. For VIPs, there is a 50 seater called First with its own terrace and green courtyard. The cafeteria, Point, next to the main entrance, is open all day and has indoor and outdoor seating for 150.

Because of the high site water-table and a tight budget, plant, storage and some services are in a large almost industrial box on the roof. The box is supported on steel portal frames, and from these are propped frames that provide the spaces for the cafeteria and the main dual restaurant space. This is dramatic, particularly in summer, when the glass walls on the east and west ends can be thrown open, and the large retractable brise-soleils (that live over the grass roof) are rolled out over the terraces to provide shade for people eating in the open air. The whole volume becomes a covered outdoor building. Glazed all along its south side, it offers a simple, spare and sunny series of places that provide a surprising number of possibilities for eating in company.

The ceiling is formed from a specially designed prefabricated structural timber decking system that spans between the frames. To cater for the racket generated by up to 500 people eating among hard surfaces, the ceiling incorporates plenty of acoustic absorption--would that more restaurant designers took the trouble to think about sound, many otherwise perfectly good eating places are ruined because elementary acoustic principles are not observed. People provide the main heat source as well and, as air conditioning is not allowed by either the budget or the building regulations, ventilation (both natural and artificial) deals with cooling. Solar radiation through the south wall is combated with white external blinds. So far, the place has not overheated.

The simple, clear and elegant building is a thoughtful tribute to a certain kind of benevolent capitalism, and is undoubtedly enjoyed by a wide range of Siemens staff and their friends.

Architect

Camenzind Grafensteiner, Zurich

Project team

Tanya Bacheva, Stefan Camenzind.

Stefan Forrer, Michael Grafensteiner, Philip Grepper, Nadia Muhlhaupt, Brigitta Wursch, Susanne Zenker

Structural engineer

Suter Walser

Photographs

Peter Wurmli