In the center of Ilanz, right at the train station, the residential and commercial building “Marcau” is constructed on previously undeveloped public area, which still belongs to the post office property after the demolition of the existing post office building. On the ground floor, the project includes retail space for Swiss Post, a Migros restaurant and retail area. The Migros supermarket is the main tenant on the first floor. Offices and apartments are planned on the upper floors.
The building of the “Zentrum Marcau” responds with two large plinth floors and the graduated volumes of the second and fourth floors according to the use requirements and the urban context. On the ground floor, the building is set back from Bahnhofplatz and Glennerstrasse and defines spacious entrance and lounge areas. The office and residential floors enclose a shared courtyard on the second floor.
The wood-concrete façade is orientated in its materiality to both traditional business and residential buildings of the region and represents the building in the alpine cultural area. In between, where inner concrete structure emerges in the ceiling area and the façade, a wood-glass membrane responds to the different use requirements in the floors.
A concrete base forms the transition to street level and deines the entrances from Bahnhofplatz, Bahnhofstrasse, Poststrasse and Glennerstrasse to the ground floor and the staircases to the offices and apartments. The area of the shop window is characterized by its wooden materiality and the surrounding, shop-typical skylight with signaling for the ground floor uses. On the 1st floor, narrow windows, which are shaded by horizontal wooden lamellas, creates the rhythm of the long wooden facades of the market floor. In the evening hours, the market emits its light through these areas to the street space. A delicate shell of vertical wooden lamellas encloses the walls of the façade and the large windows of the cash desks, work and customer access areas to Bahnhofplatz and Bahnhofstrasse.