With a project competition, the community sought ideas for the planned residential and commercial development Café am See. Now the winning project is known: it is called Churfirsten and attracts attention with an extremely impressive silhouette.
With the project Café am See, the municipality of Weesen strives for the construction of two community-owned properties in a privileged location on the lake. With an investor competition, she was looking for a convincing project. It is planned to hand over the land under construction law. Wanted were proposals for an invigorating ground floor use such as a bakery or a café. Apartments are to be built on the upper floors. The southern area of the competition area along the lakeside promenade will continue to be open to the public as a park with a playground. The competition winner has to make a financial contribution to the redesign of the playground.
A new identity
Now the community has announced the winner of the project competition. The project Churfirsten of the Zurich architectural firm Dietrich Schwarz Architekten AG convinced the jury. With its distinctive silhouette, the project creates a new identity on the outskirts of Weesen, according to the press release. Similar to buildings of neighboring sea communities, a landmark with positive long-distance effect. The skilfully chosen roof shape with the dominant mountain landscape in the background gives a harmonious impression. At the same time, an attractive face is visible to the city as well as to the lake. A clever juxtaposition of the main and secondary volumes creates a generous gap to the existing stock, which was adapted to the local conditions. The investor behind the project is the Swiss Property Development Group AG.
On the ground floor is planned a café with bakery and restaurant. This single-storey commercial unit hardly appears in terms of volume from the lake, but is designed to be spacious and functionally flexible inside, it is said. On the upper floors there are 15 two and a half and three and a half room apartments. According to the announcement, «many residents can benefit from the unique lake situation». The skilful placement of the gable façades to the south and west could also illuminate the main rooms with floor-to-ceiling windows in the attics. The façades are designed to be very disciplined, and with the traditional proportions of the windows, despite the striking, extroverted form of the building, the desired integration into the historic village image is achieved, writes the community. And further: “For the community of Weesen, this convincing design can be a great opportunity; a new attraction that radiates into the region. »
Time for a year
Investors now have to submit a full application for construction within one year, which then has to go through the approval process. When the excavators can drive up, also depends on whether objections delay the implementation of the project. For the project competition, ten teams were selected who could work out a proposal in four-month processing time. On two days, the jury made up of representatives of the municipal council, the population and technical experts assessed the proposals, it is said.
The competition projects will be publicly exhibited in the attic of the Villa Kurfürst, on Thursday, 18 August, from 18 to 20 o’clock and on Saturday, 20 August, from 10 to 12 o’clock. Afterwards, the three award-winning projects can be visited in the town hall until the end of September. (Zurich newspaper)