Albert Lück

Albert Lück

Albert Lück (born October 20, 1887 in Wilmersdorf ; † February 17, 1974 in Zurich ) was a German building contractor who built numerous prominent buildings in Switzerland , especially in the canton of Zurich , and was the founder of the Albert Lück Foundation, which Promotes building research at ETH Zurich .

Life

Lueck fled at the beginning of the 1930s as a social democrat from the Nazis in Switzerland . In Zurich , where he was later granted citizenship, he founded the Bau-Aktiengesellschaft für Hoch- und Tiefbau Zürich, or BAU AG for short, in 1934, which at times employed up to 380 people and played a key role in structural development in the canton of Zurich until the economic crisis of the 1970s helped shape.

Among other things, he worked with the architect Karl Beer , who had also relocated from Germany to Switzerland, as well as with the entrepreneurs Hans Robert Jenny and Bruno Stefanini , who committed themselves to similar goals and, with Lück 1955, the Swiss real estate investment fund Immofonds as one of the founded Switzerland's first real estate fund. Lück also campaigned for the well-being of his employees with a retirement savings bank founded in 1951, with a welfare fund, profit sharing and participation in the works committee.

Lück also carried out building research himself and worked on several structural inventions such as ceiling spotlights or vibro stones that were used in several of his buildings. In this respect, he shows parallels to the building contractor Ernst Göhner , who was involved in the further development of the prefabricated building . In 1957 he founded the Albert Lück Foundation, which is dedicated to promoting building research.

buildings

In the interwar period , there was a great housing shortage in Switzerland, especially in the larger cities such as Zurich. As a socially minded entrepreneur who orientated himself towards Ernst Abbe , Albert Lück promoted social housing for a broader segment of the population by building hundreds of single and multi-family houses all over Switzerland that had little comfort but could be rented cheaply. In addition to the residential construction, Albert Lück also received important contracts for the public sector. He often carried out plans by Albert Heinrich Steiner , who held office in Zurich from 1943–1957 as city architect and then as professor of architecture at the ETH. Well-known examples of structurally difficult and very different projects are:

• the headquarters of the World Week with a sculpture by Aristide Maillol , 1950.
• the first high-rise buildings in Zurich on Letzigraben , 1951/52.
• the silos for the Holderbank cement works, today LafargeHolcim , in Untervaz, 1957/58.
• the 51 meter high Felsenegg transmission tower , which served as the control center for national and international connections, 1959–1963.
• the Catholic Church of St. Peter in Rümlang, which is based on Le Corbusier's Notre-Dame-du-Haut , 1969-1970.
• the south portal of the Milchbuck tunnel , 1979–1983
• The biggest task, however, was the construction of the buildings for physics, molecular biology and the infrastructure for the Hönggerberg site of ETH Zurich ( Science City ), which stretched from 1961 to 1984.

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  Skyscraper on the Letzigraben

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  Felsenegg transmission tower

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  Church of St. Peter in Rümlang

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  Milchbuck tunnel south portal

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  Aerial view of ETH Hönggerberg

Foundation, endowment

The purpose of the Albert Lück Foundation , founded by Lück in 1957, was to promote the welfare of employees as well as teaching and research in the construction industry. In 1997 the Bau AG was liquidated and part of the real estate portfolio in the Bau AG was transferred to the Albert Lück Foundation. At the end of 2015, these had a market value of over 100 million francs and form the financial backbone of the foundation. Since the liquidation of the construction business, it has focused on the second objective, which is to promote research in construction.

Since 2007 the foundation has supported several projects at ETH with up to CHF 1 million annually. The current funding programs include the professorship for “Systems in Urban Water Management” for the sustainability of urban water supply and wastewater disposal by Max Maurer in cooperation with EAWAG and the professorship for “Structural Mechanics” by Eleni Chatzi, which focuses on the cost efficiency of new buildings and suitable maintenance and Repair plans for emerging structures. In 2011–2014, the Albert Lück Foundation also financed the interdisciplinary study “Stock an Flows” at the Institute for Monument Preservation and Building Research (IDB) at the Department of Architecture (D-ARCH) at ETH Zurich under the direction of Uta Hassler on the long-term preservation of the value of building stocks .

For the merits of Albert Lück and his foundation, lecture hall E1 on the Hönggerberg campus of the ETH was dedicated to him in the HIL building of the Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering (D-BAUG). In November 2017 there was an anniversary celebration for Albert Lück's 130th birthday and the 60th anniversary of the foundation's establishment in the presence of ETH President Lino Guzzella , who spoke about the importance of third-party funding for research at ETH.

literature

• The office building of the newspaper “Die Weltwoche” in Zurich. Architect Karl Egender in Zurich. In: Schweizerische Bauzeitung . Year 68, Issue 43, 1950, pp. 597–600.
• Fifty years of Bau-AG. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung . February 3, 1984, p. 51.
• Bau AG: Anniversary brochure 50 years of Bau AG . Zurich 1984.
• Hans Robert Jenny: Years of Awakening. Encounters, reminiscences, results (1945–1960). Zurich 1995, ISBN 3-905094-02-9 , pp. 87-91, 127-131.
• Dieter Jenny: What do you need for such a new fool, let's have a Telex! VERIT - a company history. Miles 2014, pp. 2–45.
• Albert Lück Foundation: Anniversary brochure “130/60” , 130 years of Albert Lück / 60 years of the Albert Lück Foundation. Zurich 2017.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ IMMOFONDS | Portrait. Retrieved September 15, 2017 . 
2. ^ Films from the Albert Lück Foundation on Youtube. Retrieved September 15, 2017 . 
3. ↑ The story | Albert Lück Foundation. Retrieved September 15, 2017 . 
4. ↑ Anniversary brochure 50 years of Bau AG. Retrieved February 21, 2018 . 
5. ↑ Origin of the funds | Albert Lück Foundation. Retrieved September 15, 2017 . 
6. ↑ Purpose of the foundation | Albert Lück Foundation. Retrieved September 15, 2017 . 
7. ↑ “Urban Water Systems” funding program | Albert Lück Foundation. Retrieved September 15, 2017 . 
8. ↑ "Structural Mechanics" funding program | Albert Lück Foundation. Retrieved September 15, 2017 . 
9. ↑ Lecture hall HIL E1 | Albert Lück Foundation. Retrieved September 15, 2017 (German). 
10. ↑ Annual Report 2017. Accessed on February 18, 2018 .