Santiago Calatrava has unveiled plans for a new office building in the city center of Zurich, Switzerland. The new five-story building will be integrated into Stadelhofen Station, the transit hub and city landmark also designed by Calatrava in 1990.
“This 21st century office building in the heart of Zurich interplays with the area’s streetscape and adds to its vibrancy by encouraging bicycle use and improving pedestrians’ connection to the Stadelhofen Station,” said Calatrava.
Commissioned by Swiss insurer AXA, the new building is envisioned as part of an initiative to expand transit-oriented design in the Swiss city and increase connectivity throughout the metro area. Nearly 80,000 commuters travel through Stadelhofen Station each day, many of whom are cyclists. This has caused the plaza space in front of the station to become overcrowded with bicycles. Calatrava’s design will directly address this problem by including approximately 1,000 underground parking spaces specifically for bikes.
Calatrava was selected by AXA for “his commitment to innovative, functional design and to ensure consistency with the adjacent station’s architecture and appropriateness within the surrounding city fabric.”
The building comes after Zurich’s City Council passed new development regulations on the project’s site of Kreuzbühlstrasse 1, allowing for the construction of “an avant-garde building that would provide bicycle parking for both neighborhood riders and station users.”
Calatrava’s redesign of Stadelhofen Station opened in 1990, becoming the first rapid-transit system to be built in Switzerland. It has since become the country’s seventh busiest rail station as well as one of eight railway stations worldwide designed by Calatrava.
