URBAN DEVELOPMENT
This area is characterised by courtyard buildings. This building typology is predominant in the Hirschmatt section of the city. Individual buildings are grouped around a courtyard, where industries were once located.

The concept for this project is “LIVE, WORK, CREATE”. It assumes a densification of the City of Lucerne over the next 50 years. Mixed uses of the kind found in Hirschmatt and other central sections of the City will shape the area over the Langensand bridge and the Tribschen section of the city. The jury of the competition commented as follows: “The three L-shaped buildings are compelling and mark the transition to more finely grained building patterns below the Bireggwald. The design vividly demonstrates a relic from the industrial past while superbly supporting the basic idea formulated in the concept.”
The intended use is a mix of office, commercial and residential and can be changed based on economic development and market needs. The buildings are flexibly designed to anticipate the change in this area of town over the next 50 years.

SUSTAINABILITY
A solid urban planning concept is sustainable if the structure is adaptable, the buildings compact and the property well-developed in terms of public utilities and services. The apartments and offices should achieve a positive energy balance in the medium term. Along with maximum efforts to save energy, the Swiss Minergie standard is also applied to produce energy. The roof surfaces serve as a solar farm to produce electricity and hot water, and geothermal probes utilise heat taken from the earth.
The minimal number of parking spaces is proposed, supplemented by mobile parking spots at a prime location. Provisions are also made for 240V/370V connections for electrical mobility for cars and scooters.

ARCHITECTURE
The edge of the courtyard is planned for mixed use and features well-proportioned apartments ideal for this section of the city. The market analysis of the location identifies three typical kinds of users: The improvisational alternative types (young singles, room mates), open middle types (younger singles and couples, families) and the urban avant-garde (younger singles and couples). The Competition Commission issued a communique with the following explanation: “The handsome zigzag roofs over the studios are not only a spatial enhancement. They also terminate the entire complex in an upward direction with an elegant industrial allusion and thus visually shape the idea of mixed use under a single roof.”

MATERIALS
Orientation and life style in this project oscillate between northern and southern Europe. The tendency is to combine southern European elegance to northern European precision.
The architecture is modelled on industrial architecture with brick façades and the typical shed roofs. This concept is combined with a contemporary use of the roofs for photovoltaic and green plantings in an urban context.


USE AND THE RIGHT TO BUILD
The residential buildings are six story tall, the office buildings five story. Once the Lucerne building and zoning code (BZO) is revised, the office building might be able to stand six stories. The builders dispensed with an additional attic so as not to dominate the usual building heights in the area.