Martinsberg community center
The Martinsberg community center is a multi-purpose building designed by Armin Meili in Baden , Switzerland , which was built in 1952 and 1953 on behalf of the electrical engineering group Brown, Boveri & Cie. was built. It served the employees of what was then the largest Swiss company as a canteen and leisure center. Later the technical school of the successor company Asea Brown Boveri and the cantonal college for economics and administration were housed here. Since 2006 it has been one of two school buildings at the Baden vocational school . The Martinsberg community house is a unique example of the welfare house building type in Switzerland and is considered one of the most important buildings of Swiss post-war modernism . For these reasons, it is listed as a cultural asset of national importance .
building
The ten 10 meter high pillars on the community center are striking. They create a kind of vestibule, as the three plinth floors recede in this area, while the upper floors rest as if on a table. With this construction method, the height difference on the slope is overcome. The lightness of the construction and independence from the ground should also be symbolized. A filigree glass wall on the narrow side of the vestibule serves as a windbreak. Viewed from a distance, the upper floors appear as the actual structure to consist almost entirely of glass panes and window bars. They form what is known as a curtain wall , in which the outer wall only bears its own weight, while the supporting pillars are continued inside.
Three differently designed staircases with a distinctive shape allow access to the upper floors. A covered staircase detached from the building leads up the slope, but stands out from the terrain with two V-shaped double supports. Six flights of stairs, each with eleven steps, are stepped through intermediate landings, the middle handrail is provided with a light band. In the middle of the vestibule, a spiral, free-standing spiral staircase winds two full turns up to an incision in the floor of the fourth floor. At the slope end of the vestibule, a zigzag staircase leads up to the transverse wing.
history
Founded in 1891, Brown, Boveri & Cie. (BBC) developed into a global company in the electrical engineering industry . At the headquarters in Baden, the various workshops soon occupied the entire Haselfeld, a level between the train station and Martinsberg. In 1905 the BBC employees had a canteen for the first time . It was a chalet-style building that originally stood at the Hotel Waldhaus Dolder in Zurich , was dismantled and rebuilt in Baden on Bruggerstrasse. Various houses served as club houses for social occasions: from 1898 the Haus zum Schwert , from 1918 the Augarten community and from 1943 the Villa Boveri , the former domicile of the company's founder Walter Boveri .
After the end of the Second World War , the size of the workforce increased significantly, which is why the existing, dilapidated canteen no longer met the requirements. The company management wanted to symbolically express the joint workforce of the BBC and further develop the corporate social culture , which is why they considered building a welfare house. The planning contract was awarded to the architect Armin Meili in 1951 , who had already designed three housing estates for BBC employees. In January 1952, the client specified the slope of Martinsberg as a building site. It was therefore on the outermost edge of the factory area away from traffic, but could still be reached quickly. In April 1952, Meili submitted a first draft that he had to revise because the client wanted the building to be oriented differently .
The opening took place after around one and a half years of construction on December 6, 1953. The employees had a large hall for lunch and evening events, a small hall, lounges, a library, a bowling alley and various rooms for recreational activities (including a photo laboratory). During the lunch break, 3,000 employees could be fed at the same time. Meili described his building as follows: "A friendly house, always ready to take in the employees so that they can spend a happy and contemplative evening in its rooms, cultivate community and further training and pursue their hobbies in the leisure workshops."
After around two decades, the occupancy rate of the communal building decreased increasingly due to the higher mobility and the changed leisure behavior. Commercial or industrial conversion, however, was out of the question. In 1971 the BBC's technical school moved in , which four years later also took over the leisure workshops and converted them for their own purposes. In 1976 two training laboratories were added, and in 1981 a data center was built in the photo laboratory . After the merger of the BBC with Asea to form Asea Brown Boveri (ABB) in 1988, a large part of the factory area was given new uses. ABB sold the community center in 1991 to the canton of Aargau , which housed the University of Applied Sciences for Business and Administration in it. In 1994 the ABB technical school moved out. From 2004 the building was extensively renovated and partially redesigned, and since 2006 the vocational school in Baden has been the sole user of the community center.
literature
- Michael Hanak, Ömer Even: Martinsberg Baden - From community house to school house . Ed .: Society for Swiss Art History. Swiss art guide, volume 850 , series 85.Bern 2009, ISBN 978-3-85782-850-8 .
Web links
- Vocational School Baden (current user)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Ömer Even, Michael Hanak: Martinsberg Baden, pp. 16-18
- ↑ Ömer Even, Michael Hanak: Martinsberg Baden, pp. 20-24
- ↑ Ömer Even, Michael Hanak: Martinsberg Baden, pp. 6-8
- ^ Ömer Even, Michael Hanak: Martinsberg Baden, pp. 9-13
- ↑ Ömer Even, Michael Hanak: Martinsberg Baden, pp. 24-27
- ^ Armin Meili: Schweizerische Bauzeitung , March 12, 1955, p. 145
- ↑ Ömer Even, Michael Hanak: Martinsberg Baden, pp. 27-28
Coordinates: 47 ° 28 '45.8 " N , 8 ° 17' 54.9" E ; CH1903: 664,820 / 259092