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Residential and Commercial Building MIN MAX, Glattpark
Opfikon, 2013–2016
Competition, 2013, 1. Prize
Standard Floor
Apartment MIN type 1
Apartment MIN type 2
Corner Apartment MIN type 2
Apartment MIN type 3
Apartment MIN+
Apartment MAX
Apartment MAX

The six-story residential and commercial MIN MAX building is conceived as a city block that attains the maximum permissible height so as to continue the cornice line along Boulevard Lilienthal. In plan, the building fills virtually the entire buildable area, making it key to defining the space of the adjacent streets and green areas. The building has commercial spaces on the ground floor and small apartments for a heterogeneous group of residents, thus providing an alternative to the offerings previously available in the new district of Glattpark.
The project offers four types of small apartments, each with around 40 m² of living space, as well as cluster apartments that enable communal living with individual rooms for every resident. Alongside the important aspect of spanning the range between community and anonymity, particular interest is given here to the question of how compact dwelling units can yield new attributes that transcend a mere reduction in the size of a conventional apartment.
The building surrounds an inner courtyard that is the central and salient place for the community. Access galleries allow it to also serve as a circulation space, and a tower-like glazed element contributes supplemental space for shared use on each floor.

> Site

Competition team
Ron Edelaar, Elli Mosayebi, Christian Inderbitzin, Theres Hollenstein, Dominique Kühnhanss, Lukas Gschweitl

Project team
Ron Edelaar, Elli Mosayebi, Christian Inderbitzin, Theres Hollenstein, Alexandra Isele, Charel Muller, Moritz Leinhos, Isabella Mugavero, Patrick Zeller, Christina Chantzara

Client
Careal Immobilien AG, Zurich

Developer: Ralbau AG, St. Gallen
Landscape Architect: Lorenz Eugster Landschaftsarchitektur und Städtebau GmbH, Zurich
Civil Engineer: Henauer Gugler Planer und Ingenieure AG, Zurich
Timber Construction Engineer: Timbatec GmbH, Zurich
Building Services: Gruenberg + Partner Planer und Ingenieure AG, Zurich
Electrical Engineer: Gutknecht Elektroplanung AG, Au
Building Physics: Wichser Akustik & Bauphysik AG, Zurich

Photographs
Roland Bernath

Publication
Architekturführer Zürich, DOM publishers 2022
Contextes. Le logement contemporain en situation, EPFL PRESS 2021
Architekturführer Zürich, Edition Hochparterre 2020
Innovative Wohnformen, Wohnbaugenossenschaften Schweiz – Regionalverband Zürich 2019
House Tour: Views of the Unfurnished Interior, Park Books 2018
a+t, 49/2018
werk, bauen + wohnen, 12/2017
archithese, 4/2017
Hochparterre, 5/2017
VISO, 3/2017
www.baunetz.de, 15.4.2016
Sonntagszeitung, 27.7.2014
www.hochparterre.ch, 14.5.2013

Auszeichnung
best architects 18