Apartment Building on Stampfenbachstrasse, Zurich

The Project
The six-story replacement building on Stampfenbachstrasse in Zurich houses small households in units of just over 55 square meters. Thanks to a cleverly placed rotating wall, movable wardrobe cabinets, and drawers in the raised floor, the living space is adaptable and versatile; residents need to bring only a few pieces of furniture. The building is constructed entirely of wood starting from the ground floor; the existing basement was preserved and repurposed. A 1:1 scale mock-up was used to test various structural and acoustic properties of this innovative construction method.

Construction Method
The floor slabs and walls of the performance venue are largely constructed from cross-laminated timber panels. The cross-laminated timber walls are load-bearing and transfer heavy loads from the upper floors to the ones below. To prevent the wood from being compressed at the support points on the floor slab—a phenomenon known as transverse compression—the loads are transferred via a beech dowel with a diameter of 6 centimeters.

The Challenge
Due to the high noise levels on Stampfenbachstrasse, the requirements for the facade are stringent (De 39 dB). These requirements can be met with an exterior wall made of cross-laminated timber and acoustically decoupled exterior insulation that acts as a cladding shell. Timbatec prepared the noise assessment; since the limit values were exceeded, a special permit was required.

Hochparterre Article - The Moving House