Jan Henrik Hansen Architects

We are certified architects ETH / SIA located in Zurich and focus primarily on the issues of housing and public buildings. Constantly we struggle to find accurate solutions of strong identity that we distill from the qualities of place, the specific program and goals of a building. For us the development of a concept regarding character and organization creates the core of a project – as well as its implementation in material and constructive quality.A network of experts and consultants enables us to exclusively employ specialists for the diverse aspects of our projects and concentrate our capacity on our core competence.Our fascination with holistic, interdisciplinary thinking, in particular for visual arts and music determines our approach to architecture. In addition to our commissioned work this regularly results in free works and research on themes beyond the limits of architecture.In the first years of our activity we were able to perform numerous jobs in public spaces and music clubs in the form of experimental, temporary interventions in the form of projection screens and projections throughout Switzerland.Since 1998 we are researching on the relation of music and architecture. Thus we became the first to develop and patent tools to transform musical compositions into spatial or architectural structures. By the means of these “instruments” a range of free works has been created, that were shown in the Swiss Architecture Museum in Basel, as well as a number of architectural projects, for example a new facade for the UNESCO building in Bahrain. Various lectures and publications on this issue have been published in the recent years. In 2012 we were invited to present our ideas, projects and strategies live at the TED x Zurich.The teaching and reseach with professors Gramazio Kohler at the department of Architecture and digital fabrication, ETH Zurich defines an important ingredient of our knowledge of contemporary fabrication possibilities and design strategies inspired by them.We are intrigued by being active beyond Swiss and European borders – and the varying circumstances, that other places, cultures and and zones of climate create for architectural projects. Next to commissions in other countries we are contributing to non-profit projects in Africa. So far we could accomplish the realization of a school with sport facilities as well as a bakery in Senegal.