80-metre high-rise building in Zug taking shape

V-Zug wants to provide affordable housing in an 80-meter high-rise wooden building in Zug. It will be the tallest wooden high-rise in Switzerland.

Head of Construction Eliane Birchmeier describes the 80-meter high-rise wooden building that will stand at the corner of Baarerstrasse and the Göblistrasse as a ‘lighthouse project’ for the city of Zug. It is a very special high-rise building, that fascinates in its entirety, she continues. Beat Weiss, CEO of V-Zug Immobilien AG, who presented the winning project in Zugorama on Wednesday, is also satisfied. "This is a chance to create something unique," he said with regard to the Pi project. That's the name of the wooden high-rise planned by V-Zug, with mostly low-cost apartments.

One year ago, the urban planning study procedure for the Baarerstrasse, Göblistrasse, Industriestrasse and Mattenstrasse districts was launched in parallel with the competition procedure for the overall performance study for the Pi project, with six teams being invited. The reason for this was that the landowners (Vaudoise insurance, Stockwerkeigentümerschaft (condominium) Baarerstrasse 94, V-Zug real estate AG and the Canton of Zug) wanted to pull together, hence the overall concept. Now the winners are now determined: Duplex Architekten AG from Zurich delivered the winning project for the wooden high-rise, as well as the urban planning concept for the square.

The demands placed on the teams were high: most of the apartments were designed to be reasonably priced, and had to be built from wood as sustainably as possible. Questions about open space, fire protection or traffic also had to be answered. "We continually came across contradictions and conflicting goals," says Beat Weiss. "And we also realised that we had unnecessarily overloaded our program." That's why they did without the planned primary school, for example. "The depth to which innovation has been successfully integrated is surprising,” he added with regard to the winning project: There has already been changes in terms of cost. The estimated CHF 80 million a year ago has been corrected upwards by Beat Weiss to CHF 100 million francs. Beat Weiss now expects to have the legally binding development plan in 2021, and that the building will probably be ready for use in 2024.

How the wooden high-rise on the Baarerstrasse should look someday

A look inside the apartments.

A view into a "piazza".

At the moment, the 60-meter high-rise wooden building on the Suurstoffi site in Rotkreuz is the tallest of its kind in Switzerland, and the Pi project is set to change that. The planned low-cost apartments are intended for employees, who could then walk to work from the technology cluster, adds Weiss. Anne Kaestle, co-owner of Duplex Architects, adds: The building planned by the Duplex team has 27 floors with a total of 199 apartments, of which 173 are in the low-priced area, according to the proposal. After every six storeys, the next one protrudes over the one below, and the skyscraper thereby becomes a little wider. The building combines different types of accommodation (for example, families, shared flats, singles): in each case, a three-storey "piazza" is intended to promote residents' coexistence and break up any anonymity. Cross-storey "neighbourhoods" of 20 to 24 apartments of the same type are thereby created.

A large span and great flexibility in the layout design are achieved by means of an outer and inner frame structure - a so-called tube-in-tube system. A linear, visible wooden frame stabilises the highg-rise building. A lot of ceramics and glass will be on display on the outside. "There will be photovoltaic systems behind the glass that will produce one-third of the electricity requirement," explains Anne Kaestle. Beat Weiss summarises: "I am thrilled with this project."