Matteo Thun, Architect - Strategic Business Unit, Hugo Boss Industries in Coldrerio, Switzerland

Wednesday, 04 February 2009 18:00

This office building rises from its surroundings with a distinctive exterior; a shell structure of intertwined wooden elements, covering a transparent structure of glass and steel. Transparency and lightness make the essential ingredients of the formal concept.

The bended wooden diamond elements, sprouting from balconies, enter in a dialogue with the textile membrane that helps the building integrate in the surrounding landscape and protects the construction from bad weather conditions and excessive exposure to the sun.

Natural illumination penetrates the building from all sides and enhances the visual impact of the internal volumes, the different textures and materials that are used, guaranteeing a crisp visual cleanliness.

As desired by the client, the project fulfils the highest standards of comfort thanks to highly developed integrated management systems, ranging from the air conditioning to the illumination system, without neglecting the relationship with the aesthetics of the location.

Architectural elements

The structure is composed of steel, wood and concrete – prefabricated and economical elements that allow speed and precision during the construction process. The construction system provided the possibility of producing large spans and therefore, more flexibility in the subdivision of internal space.

The floor is in wood and concrete. The wood regulates the humidity, the concrete the temperature. Both elements are prefabricated and allow velocity during the construction process. The wooden structure is used as lost formwork – a big advantage of this kind of floor.

The roof is covered with a translucent membrane, which is composed as a sandwich structure of EFTE and textile. It transmits the highest quality of natural light inside the building.

The external shell is multi-layered, with an external layer consisting of a horizontally running wooden diamond structure that serves as protection against the sun and rain, while admitting a great amount of light, the intermediary level consists peripheral small balconies, and finally the internal level with a curtain-wall glass façade sheltering the internal spaces.

The wooden structure makes the building easily identifiable. The weaving of the wooden structure mimics the weaving of textile fabrics, a core material utilised by the garment industry and the business hosted inside the building. It also provides a visual buffer between the volumetric “sharpness” of the rectangular building and the organic “softness” of the natural surrounding, helping the project to integrate within its surroundings.

The building is composed of five floors, two of them forming the underground parking. The first floor is mostly dedicated to the public spaces while the upper levels are strictly utilized as office space.
The work area within the three floors is organized around a luminous central atrium and receives natural light from through the curtain wall as well as from the internal atrium. The geometrical layout of the space allows the provision of adequate natural light throughout the building.

Inside the building, the architects utilized sound-absorbing material, to prevent the propagation of noise through the open atrium. The pavement of the first floor is realised in dark grey cement resin, the pavement and the walls of the two upper levels are wooden. More precisely, the walls are noise-absorbing panels in order to optimise the acoustic of the work areas.

The entrance is delimited by vertical cutting edges of cauterized mirror with water flowing from the top, which has the function to incorporate nature dynamically into the building.

Passing the entrance gallery, the central atrium reveals itself, stretching to the top of the building, engorged with zenithal light that aspires the space towards the top.

The open spaces of the work areas are distributed on three levels around the central atrium. The open spaces guarantee flexibility, extending the sight towards the exterior to 360°: exterior and interior are melted, flooding every single work unit with light.

The concrete blocks of vertical distribution maintain their essential and vivid aspect; the pavements of the bathrooms are in grey stone and have light finished dividing septa of white plaster..

The furnishings display a careful balance between functionality aesthetics. Many pieces of furniture for offices have been redesigned or re-elaborated exclusively for Hugo Boss, in cooperation with Vitra, Ruckstuhl and USM. The seatings and the door handles allude to the theme of the textile, having been realised in leather with crafted seams. The seatings are design classics: the series Alu Chair and Plastic Chair by Charles and Ray Eames.

Technical data

Project: Hugo Boss, Via Sant’Apollonia 32, CH - 6877 Coldrerio, Switzerland

Building use: Office building of three storeys, conference rooms, show room and self service for 300 people

Realisation: beginning 2005, opening September 2006

Client: Hugo Boss Industries (Switzerland)

Architects: Matteo Thun & Partners, Milan
Commission: architecture, interior design, light design, landscaping
Team: Project leader architecture: Florian Köhler. Project leader interior design: Michael Catoir
Team: Architects: Bruno Franchi, Julia Leinfelder. Interior designers: Uta Bahn, Elisa Catoir. Light designer: Simone Fumagalli. Stylist: Sabrina Wilms

Reinforced concrete structures: Comal e Associati SA, Morbio Inferiore (CH)
Steel and wooden structures: Merz Kaufmann Partner, Altenrhein (CH)
Electrical systems: Elettroconsulenze Solcà SA, Mendrisio (CH)
Mechanical systems: TEAMGMI, Dornbirn (A)
Façade systems: Berlinger Holzbau GmbH (A)
Builder: Berlinger Holzbau GmbH (A)

Total area construction site: 10 500 m2
Each storey: 2890 m2
Lounge: 125 m2
Conference rooms: 120 m2
Showroom: 125 m2
Self service: 200 m2
Total area: 14 460 m2
Volume project: 54 140 m3