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Entwurf • Design Diener & Diener Architekten, CH-Basel
Grundriss EG • Ground floor plan
Grundriss 1. OG • Floor plan Level +1
Bauherr • Client Swiss Re, CH-Zürich
Standort • Location Mythquai 50, CH-Zürich
Foto: Christian Scholz
Nutzfläche • Floor space 19.006 m 2
Fotos • Photos Swiss Re, CH-Zürich
Mehr Infos auf Seite • More infos on page 146
SWISS RE INSURANCE
GROUP IN ZÜRICH
At the promenade of Lake Zurich, the Swiss Re insuran-
ce group intends to bring together its Swiss branches
on one campus. In addition to three existing buildings
worthy of preservation, three additional buildings will
complement the ensemble. The architects from Diener
& Diener have made an impressive start this year with
the new headquarters.
T he brand-new office building is in many respects a real invest-
ment in the future: it is highly energy-efficient and designed for
a service life of 100 years. It also makes optimum use of the existing
building site between the neighbouring buildings, connects the cam-
pus buildings with each other and has a highly flexible office layout.
With the Swiss Re Next office concept, the company has recently
defined new standards for its own corporate culture, which have long
since been successfully applied at other locations and can now also
be introduced in Zurich. The aim is to enable the company's employ-
ees to exploit their full potential and, on the basis of trust, to offer the
staff a free workday organisation. For this purpose, the entire new
building with eight floors is divided horizontally into three areas: the
three basement levels serve as parking decks and provide a large
auditorium that is used for further education; the ground floor wel-
comes both guests and employees in a prestigious manner at the
lakefront promenade and accommodates customer consultation
rooms; the five upper floors are used as open-plan, uniformly
equipped office spaces. With a non-territorial usage system and a reg-
ular alternation between classic rows of desks, open seating areas as
well as glazed conference booths and think tanks, a total of 1,100
employees can optimally utilize the 800 regular workplaces. Work is
done in teams, each of which is assigned a fixed home base in the
building in order to strengthen group communication and the sense
of belonging. In addition, an app helps find free meeting rooms or
locate employees. All floors are connected with each other via two
light atria and four staircases of different sizes, which ensure orienta-
tion within the building. Light-coloured surfaces, neutral to colour-
accentuated furniture and paintings from the company's own art col-
lection complete the working environment. The wave-shaped glass
façade is equally effective on the inside and outside. It turns the
clear-cut building into a landmark characterising the cityscape,
which, depending on the lighting conditions, seems sometimes more
and sometimes less immaterial.
AIT 12.2017 • 089