The new visitor center for Rhine Falls at the castle Laufen was recently featured as “Project of the Week” on swiss-architects.com. Leuppi & Schafroth Architekten AG, who have been drawing with Vectorworks since 1995, were responsible for this unique design. The difficult task of transforming an existing staff house into a public building—integrating a souvenir shop, bistro, public toilet facilities, and a multi-purpose hall under one roof—was accomplished by extending the building and developing a new skin that wraps the entire structure.
The new facade was envisioned as ‘a coat of armor’ – a metal mesh encapsulating the old and new sections. The designers planned folding canopies to reduce the volume to a simple form while the building was dormant during the winter season. In the final development the outer skin was realized with perforated, weatherproof steel plates which react better to the requirements on rigidity, sun protection, and controlling views into and out of the building.
Photo courtesy of Roger Frei
“As architects, we are often commissioned to modify, convert, or extend existing structures,” explains Stephanie Schafroth, principal of Leuppi & Schafroth Architekten. “The visitor center is another example that shows our tendency toward creating single, larger forms rather than smaller, additive volumes. Maybe it’s our modest attempt to hold the world together.”
We thank Leuppi & Schafroth Architekten for sharing their innovative design with us.
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