Page 77 - AIT1222_E-Paper

Entwurf • Design Seiler Linhart Architekten, CH-Sarnen
„Das Fassadenbild soll Ausdruck für
Beständigkeit, Regionalität und Vielfalt sein.“
Seiler Linhart Architekten
Bauherr • Client Obwaldner Kantonalbank, CH-Sarnen
Standort • Location Im Feld 2, CH-Sarnen
Nutzfläche • Floor space 8720 m 2
Fotos • Photos Rasmus Norlander, CH-Zürich
Mehr Infos auf Seite • More info on page 126
KANTONALBANK
IN SARNEN
On the northern edge of the historic centre of Sarnen, a
working- and residential district is to be established.
Seiler Linhart exemplarily and progressively master the
beginning of the settlement development with their
new building for the Obwaldner Kantonalbank OKB.
Characterizing the design are the façade and the visible
construction of ash- and spruce wood from local forest.
T he new headquarters of the OKB bank is located between a resi-
dential district that has plenty of green spaces and a bleak com-
mercial area. With its five-storey building volume, the construction – so
far standing alone – cleverly connects the previously sudden change
from a small- to a large-dimensioned peripheric development. The, at
first glance, ambiguous material of the building also has a communica-
tive effect since the wood of the dark, grey-brown coloured façade only
becomes manifest in detail from close up. The delicate perpendicular
joints and millings of the vertical and the decorative reliefs of the hori-
zontal framework alternate between the rustic and the opulent. This ap-
parent contraction is effectively continued in the central, double-storey
reception hall. The untreated laminated timber and the bright floor pa-
nels of cement and regional river gravel look extremely noble. The ran-
dom appearance of the wood grain and the aggregate contrasts with the
spatial sequence. The two-quarter spiral stairs and the two posts in
front of it – which stand at a 45-degree angle to the rest of the construc-
tion – also defy traditional stiffness. It is these loving details that propa-
gate emotio instead of ratio as – with the only exception such as LRO
(see p. 94) – it is nowadays only known from the Swiss. The timber con-
struction produces a square ceiling grid that, in turn, is subdivided by
upright attached small plates between which the so-called human cen-
tric lighting is concealed – a dynamic kind of lighting that reflects the
course of daylight. From the foyer and the consulting counters, one is
guided up the stairs to the gallery level and there arrives at the meeting
rooms and a large multifunctional room. The offices of the employees
on the two standard floors upstairs and the top floor are accessed
through separate entrances on the ground floor and through the under-
ground carpark; this is also where an interior courtyard with a height
of ten metres successfully supplies the central corridor with daylight.
We look very much forward to the further development of the district
– with the architecture designed by Seiler Linhart Architekten, there is
already a considerable asset on the plus side.
AIT 12.2022 • 077