Residential and Commercial Building Falken in Baden

Photos: Roger Frei, Zurich

The local architects carefully engaged with the difficult site conditions and created an urban accent with the building at the southern entrance to the city. In the urban space, the multi-story building presents itself as a striking solitary structure with a unified formal language. A two-layer membrane, reduced to glass and concrete, spans flush across the building body and creates an appearance that offers new perceptual possibilities through its tonality and reflection. The individual floors can be read from the horizontally running visible soffit edges of the double facade made of glass. Within the two-layer facade, variously colored curtains run along gently curved rails, expressing the individuality of the users and the different functions of the residential, office, and commercial building.
The resulting building with its distinctive volume is remarkably austere and yet refreshingly lively.