Raiffeisenbank Zürich Höngg

This branch of the Raiffeisen bank is situated in the historic center of a prominent neighborhood in Zurich. The project includes the bank on the ground floor and the bank’s office space on the second floor. The publicly used arcade was integrated into the project and the exterior space of the adjacent urban square was redesigned. Inside, the bank is designed as an „open bank“ without the classic separation between client and employee. The spatial sequence of rooms leads from the public area through the discrete consulting rooms to the safe zone in the back. The space-forming wall accommodates storage space, infrastructure equipment and the safes and at the same time it integrates structural columns and varying heights of the slabs. Whereas in its upper part it houses all necessary technical elements, in order to preserve the limited room height to the maximum extent. The rich history of the Höngg district is addressed through the differentiated and high-quality materialization of the building components. Textured surfaces of glass-fiber reinforced plaster with their abstract woven structure refer to the Höngg’s industrial past of textile production. With its built-in wooden components it refers to the former rural importance as one of the largest wine cultivation areas of the region. The quarter‘s urban presence resonates in the stone surfaces of the terrazzo floor.