Remodelling and landscaping of National Bank Zurich, 2006 - 2014

The staff restaurant’s renovation provided the opportunity to restore the floor plan typology of the brothers Pfister’s National Bank from 1922. It had been destroyed during a previous renovation. All spatial structural elements were kept in shades of white; artificial and natural light supports the modulation. The only colour accent is the cushions’ light green. A deliberately ambivalent answer was given in response to the central question which expression a modern staff restaurant within the Pfister’s neoclassical architecture should receive. The newly introduced tectonic elements pick up their style language, but their alienating effect in the details refers to a contemporary intervention.

In the course of a street renewal, security requirements of the National Bank regarding the exterior space were to be taken into consideration. To protect the building, 50 bollards were set up along Fraumünsterstrasse and Börsenstrasse 50 which had to meet the requirements of the National Bank, the city of Zurich as well as the cantonal preservation of monuments regarding this important building. Analog to the accuracy with which the Pfisters planned the entire building, specific bollards were developed which reference the house’s aesthetic in the street area. Here, elements of the existing building were included and distorted. The bollards’ layout is based on an eight-point star which can be found in the stone floor of the entrance hall. They are made up of an equally eight-point shaft and a head piece attached on top of it. The sculptural effect corresponds to the character of the figures on the building, figuratively to protect against evil spirits. The bollards were made by the art foundry St. Gallen, their sturdiness are absolutely supposed to give off a psychological effect.