13. April 2026
08:027 //
Turbinenbräu. The sky is grey. Suits the tanks. Hug with Chris.
He takes me up to the roof. We are standing level with the skylights of the hall.
The colours of this small plant with the many little arms match the olive-green lichen. The sugar from the malt cooks off through the chimney. Sweet.
Through the narrow tall window of the bit they raised to fit the tanks I can see them in silver metal. On the other side Chris opens the square window.
09:13 //
A man stands behind the tilted square window with a beautiful glass brick facade. „May I come in?“
The Turbinenbräu is located on Badenerstrasse in Altstetten, close to the Zirkusquartier at the Kochareal and the F+F school. The building is owned by Nest Pensionskasse, which intends to develop a new building in 2029 to generate maximal density. The brewery — the main tenant — is moving out a year prior.
I took a position: the building must be preserved. A space like the Turbinenhall — large and open — can offer a place for the neighbourhood in Altstetten. But this is only possible if additional floor space is created through new added volumes to achieve nevertheless maximum utilisation. This is where the ateliers of D-Arch are to move in. I decided to work in a manner that is considerate to the existing structure. An additive intervention that can preserve the existing fabric.
These new volumes arrange themselves around the centrepiece: the Turbinenhall. The two volumes placed to either side, form with their columns new entrances to the hall. There the existing façade is opened up to create a relation from the outside to the hall.
Community, resources, ideas and needs from the surrounding area and the communities encountered through our research are brought together here in the Turbinenhall. At times it becomes a space between things. And sometimes, a space belonging to the constituencies based there.
The primary structure of the extension consists of slim columns and beams in steel, following the existing grid. The secondary structure and façade subframe is in timber in an aluminum finish. The façade and its openings articulate across three degrees of opacity referencing the already existing. Colour combinations drawn from the Turbinenbräu palette on site create different atmospheres from space to space.
In the end, it is how the new relates to the old — and vice versa. How, together, they become a whole.
