Lasting

Praise sounds different. When the refurbishment of Mobimo-Hochhaus was completed in January 2001, the NZZ reported that the “refurbishment measures have turned a previously attractive industrial structure into an unattractive building,” and that “the second glass façade resembled “a gelatine glaze, a mask”.

This was a blow for the young Mobimo, given that it had announced it was building “Switzerland’s most modern high-rise” on Zurich’s Escher-Wyss-Platz, with low energy consumption and non-smoking offices. He probably “put [the criticism] out of his mind,” says Georg Horka, project manager at the time, today. “Or perhaps I never even read it?”

Someone else at the time immediately wrote an eloquent reply. “Something that polarises and provokes strong opinions can’t be completely without quality”, head of Mobimo Alfred Meili said. “The core concept behind this project was to turn what currently exists into a building for the future. And in that process, form follows function.” He went on to say that along with architectural quality, Mobimo promoted construction methods that were consistently environmentally friendly, also for commercial reasons. It was important here “to realise that the environmental questions of the 21st century cannot be answered with the design vocabulary of the 19th century.”

So, there it stood – the first low-energy and non-smoking high-rise in Switzerland. And it immediately aroused controversy, although the much-maligned façade was a genuine pioneering feat for the environment.

The former Sulzer administration building, built in 1972 and by then somewhat past its prime, had been for sale for some time in 1999, when one day Georg Horka’s phone rang. “Is this something you might be interested in?”, the caller wanted to know. Indeed, Horka decided. Because “I believed in the district,” he says. Even though its defining characteristic was a vast industrial wasteland. But there were also artists, underground clubs and the city’s statement of intent to create “a good new district”. “That made us sit up and take notice, it signalled a new start,” Horka says.

The native of Graubünden, in charge of architecture and project management at the young Mobimo, now had to persuade the Board of Directors of his vision. Three presentations were needed to win over the Board. They travelled to the area near Escher-Wyss-Platz in two cars and looked around. It was clear to them that the highrise is going to be quite something. But different to how some envisaged.

Georg Horka doesn’t like it when people refer to him as the father of sustainability at Mobimo. “That would be praising me too much,” he says. “It was teamwork.” Nevertheless, it was he who drove progress with his ideas when many people still thought that taking resources into account was only something for dyed-in-thewool Greens voters and head-in-the-clouds environmental dreamers.

Together with architects Rolf Läuppi and Heinz Zimmermann, Horka got down to business on the high-rise. The height of the building was increased by three floors to 15, and was given a “second skin” in the form of a glass façade that functioned as an air collector. This enabled the energy required for heating, ventilation and air-conditioning to be reduced by around 70%, as stated at the time. The remainder required came in the form of waste heat from the nearby household waste incinerator on Josefstrasse.