1 - 5 ©Beat Bühler, 6 ©Hanns Joosten, 7 - 13 ©Ruedi Walti

Assignment
Covering a total area of 10.2 hectares, the Heerenschürli in Schwamendingen is one of the three largest sports facilities in Zurich. The competition brief called for the reorganization of the soccer fields, the creation of an official-size baseball field with a grandstand, and the construction of a new locker room and a maintenance building.
 
Sports Facility
The site is situated between a nature reserve, a highway interchange, large industrial buildings, and residential areas. The growing demand for sports facilities led to a program comprising 12 soccer fields, a baseball field, and a locker room building with a restaurant as well as a maintenance building. The fields are enclosed by tall fences, giving the entire complex the appearance of large-scale architecture and thus an urban significance. Circulation routes are interwoven with the sensuous aspects of sport, accompanied by tree-lined alleys and a central square that serves as both the spatial and functional core of the facility. The overlapping transparencies of the fences generate their own dynamic, further enhanced by a double-layered wire mesh in different shades of green that produces a moiré effect. This layered interplay of fences, fields, and pathways places athletes and spectators in a hybrid relationship with one another.
 
Locker Room Building
The rectangular plan of the locker room building is defined by a sloping roof oriented eastwards. This roof doubles as a grandstand for 900 spectators overlooking the main soccer field. The building can be accessed from all four sides: via two deep cuts on the grandstand side that evoke the atmosphere of a stadium as the players enter the field, as well as from the central square and the narrow ends of the building. On the ground floor are the locker rooms, a restaurant with an adjoining assembly room to the south, and storage rooms located between the grandstand and the locker areas. The upper floor is reserved for technical equipment.
 
In contrast to the exterior, which is kept entirely in shades of yellow and green, the interior is characterized by silvery tones: walls in silver-painted plasterboard, ceilings in stainless steel, and furnishings in matching finishes. The concrete floor, in a deep anthracite, grounds the bright interior palette and adds a sense of robustness.

Architecture / Design Firm:
Dürig AG, Zurich; Jean-Pierre Dürig
Contributors Dürig AG:
Bruce A. Buckingham, Raphael Bösch, Margarita Mene Castiñeiras, Khai Ly, Ludmila Thomann, Joana Gouveia, Simon Kempf, Lutz Bachmann, Guillermo Dürig, Jean-Pierre Dürig, Otto Fitzi, Sandra Simic, Stefania Koller, Jörg Magdeburg, Silvia Egger, Caroline Vogel, Jan Heider
 
Topotek 1, Berlin; Martin Rein-Cano, Lorenz Drexler
Contributors Topotek 1:
Alexander Bölk, Alexander Kochan, Harald Müller, Judith Brücker, Knut Maywald, Thilo Folkerts, Moritz Schloten (Annabau)
 
 
Planning Team:
 
Construction engineering and construction management (landscape):
Hans H. Moser AG, Zurich; Stefan Süss, Mauro Ferrari
 
Site supervision (building)
Oppliger Baumanagement AG, Zurich
Xs-Partner GmbH, Mettmerstetten
 
Construction engineering (building)
Dr. J. Grob & Partner AG, Winterthur
 
Electrical engineering (landscape)
Amstein + Walthert AG, Zurich
 
Electrical engineering (building)
Mettler + Partner AG, Zurich
 
Sanitary planning (landscape)
WUS-Architektur, Stuttgart
 
Sanitary planning (building)
Hunziker & Urban, Zurich
 
HVAC planning (building)
Haerter & Partner AG, Zurich
 
Construction physics and acoustics (building)
Haerter & Partner AG, Zurich
 
Geology and groundwater
Dr. H. Jäckli AG, Zurich