Roland Rohn

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Swiss Bank Corporation, headquarters, 1956 (today UBS), Zurich Paradeplatz
West entrance of the Kollegienhaus of the University of Basel , 1939
Kasino am Zürichhorn, 1964

Roland Rohn (born November 12, 1905 in Sterkrade ; † June 11, 1971 in Zurich ) was a Swiss architect , best known for the factory and administration buildings of several large Swiss companies as well as for his school buildings.

Education and early employment

The son of the civil engineer and university professor Arthur Rohn experienced childhood and high school in Zurich, his career aspirations were initially music or fine arts. From 1924 to 1928 Rohn studied architecture at the ETH Zurich , teachers were Karl Moser and Gustav Gull , at whose chair he received an assistant position after completing his studies. From 1930 to 1932 he worked for his role model Otto Rudolf Salvisberg , who was also the co-referee of his 1931 dissertation on the supporting structure and room closure .

In your own studio

At the end of 1931 Rohn founded his own office. The first significant orders were schoolhouses in the moderate style of New Building , such as the primary and secondary school in Zurich-Seebach, a cubic-shaped, broad structure that appears to float on supports because of the recessed ground floor on the courtyard side, in Wollishofen, on the occasion of the Competition, the question should be clarified whether preference should continue to be given to the multi-storey school building or whether the pavilion type should be better introduced, and Höngg. In the second half of the 1930s he built the college building of the University of Basel and won the competition for the Zofingen district school. Rohn was recognized as a specialist in school building as early as the 1930s, a building project that he continued after the Second World War.

In 1937 Rohn presented a plan for a festival theater in Lucerne, which, located on the shores of Lake Lucerne, was to be both a “consecration place for the Swiss idea of ​​the state” and a “permanent home for the independent festival”. In the same year he won the competition for a casino on the Zürichhorn, a building project that would take almost three decades to complete in 1964. Both projects certainly helped that Rohn was appointed by Lucerne chief architect Armin Meili as one of the dozen or so architects at the 1939 Swiss National Exhibition . There he was responsible for the electricity pavilion of the exhibition on the left bank. At the latest while working in the specialist group that determined the subject of the electricity pavilion, he also got to know Theodor Boveri, for whose Brown Boveri & Cie he later carried out a large number of projects.

Successor to Salvisberg

In 1940, after the unexpected death of Salvisberg, Rohn took over his office, construction contracts and clients, and in 1942 he also married his widow Emma Marie nee. Roloff. In doing so, he probably benefited from his unreserved recognition of Salvisberg as well as his ability and willingness to continue planning on the existing and given.

The main customer that Rohn took over, and his main client, was the pharmaceutical company Hoffmann-La Roche , for which he immediately planned and built research and laboratory buildings in Nutley and Basel . In addition, Salvisberg had already built for the building materials manufacturer Dätwyler in Altdorf, for whom Rohn later also built a factory settlement, factory and administration building. After the war, the office grew to more than forty employees, making it one of the largest Zurich offices alongside Werner Stücheli's office. Commercial buildings with load-bearing, gridded (natural stone) façades were built, which, in Salvisberg's tradition, radiated solidity and weight.

The proximity to Salvisberg became a problem for him when he was talking about the successor to four new professorships to be filled at the ETH, but ultimately did not get a chance. Were appointed Geisendorf who embodied the Scandinavian influence of urban planners (and Zurich city architect) Steiner , the representative of classical modernism Roth and Tami , the first Ticino on a Architecture Chair at ETH.

This willingness to fit in with what already exists and to subordinate oneself to it (?) Can be seen in many of Rohn's projects. Between 1942 and 1958, Rohn built a total of ten orders for the mechanical engineering company Brown Boveri & Cie in Baden on its extensive factory premises, together with three other architectural offices, the headquarters of the elevator manufacturer Schindler in Ebikon and for spinning companies such as Zellweger in Uster and Kunz in Windisch . He was also an architect for the Jelmoli Group. From 1953 to 1960 Rohn was responsible for the new building of the bank association on Paradeplatz (Zurich) .

Works (selection)

building

  • Buhnrain school building , Zurich-Seebach, 1933
  • Manegg school building , Zurich-Wollishofen, 1935
  • Kollegienhaus der Universität , Basel, 1937–39
  • Factory , Brown Boveri & Cie, Baden, 1947–52
  • Factory , flooring building Dätwyler AG, Altdorf, 1951
  • Talgarten , commercial building, Zurich, 1952–53
  • Factory facility, Schindler elevator factory, Ebikon 1953–57 (Architects Roland Rohn, Weideli and Gattiker, Carl Mossdorf, Fritz Zwicky)
  • Factory , Heusser and Staub spinning mills, Uster and Glattfelden, 19–
  • Swiss Bank Corporation , headquarters, Zurich, 1956
  • Factory , Brown Boveri & Cie, Birr, 1957
  • Factory , Kunz spinning mill, Windisch, 1960
  • Building 52 Roche, Basel, 1960 (overall planning and construction time)
  • Jelmoli department store , extension, Zurich, 1964
  • Kasino Zürichhorn , Zurich, 1967
  • Triemli City Hospital , Zurich, 1962–70 (Architects Ernst Schindler, Rudolf Joss, Helmut Rauber, Roland Rohn, Rolf Hässig, Erwin Müller)
  • Personnel house , Dätwyler AG, Altdorf, 1964–65

Fonts

  • Structure and space closure: a summary of today's construction options for building construction in wood, stone, reinforced concrete and iron. Zurich 1931 (dissertation)

literature

  • Alois Diethelm: Roland Rohn 1905–1971. Documents on modern Swiss architecture . gta Verlag Zurich 2003. ISBN 978-3-85676-113-4 .
  • Giovanni Menghini: Rohn, Roland. In: Isabelle Rucki and Dorothee Huber (eds.): Architectural Lexicon of Switzerland - 19./20. Century. Birkhäuser, Basel 1998. ISBN 3-7643-5261-2 , p. 450

Web links

supporting documents

  1. ^ Alois Diethelm: Roland Rohn 1905–1971. Documents on modern Swiss architecture . gta Verlag Zurich 2003. ISBN 978-3-85676-113-4 . P. 8
    “For companies like Hoffmann-La Roche and Dätwyler, the proximity to Salvisberg ensured the continuity of their intended structural development. They found a partner in him who took up the ideas outlined and developed them further. Rohn did not focus on his person ... »
  2. ^ Alois Diethelm: Roland Rohn 1905–1971. Documents on modern Swiss architecture . gta Verlag Zurich 2003. ISBN 978-3-85676-113-4 . P. 15
  3. ^ Alois Diethelm: Roland Rohn 1905–1971. Documents on modern Swiss architecture . gta Verlag Zurich 2003. ISBN 978-3-85676-113-4 . P. 15
  1. ^ NN .: Roland Rohn (obituary) . In: Schweizerische Bauzeitung . tape 89 , no. 47 , 1971 ( online ).
  2. ^ NN :: Competition for a school in Seebach . In: Schweizerische Bauzeitung . tape 99 , no. 4 , 1932, pp. 44 ff . ( online ).
  3. ^ NN: Five new school buildings in Zurich . In: The work . tape 25 , no. 9 , 1938, pp. 206-224 , doi : 10.5169 / seals-86717 .
  4. ↑ Competition result: NN :: Competition for a school complex at the proj. Tannenrauchstrasse in Zurich 2 . In: Schweizerische Bauzeitung . tape 99 , no. 23 , 1932, p. 298 ff . ( online ).
  5. ↑ Competition notice : NN :: Höngg. School building . In: The work . tape 20 , no. 5 , 1933, pp. XVII ( online ).
  6. ↑ Result of the closer competition: NN: Second (closer) competition for the college building of the University of Basel . In: Schweizerische Bauzeitung . tape 102 , no. 7 , 1933, pp. 80 ff . ( online ).
  7. ↑ NN: Competition for hall and school building in Zofingen . In: Schweizerische Bauzeitung . tape 106 , no. 7 , 1935, pp. 77 ff . ( online ).
  8. ^ Roland Rohn: Project from 1937 for a festival theater in Lucerne . In: The work . tape 28 , no. 3 , 1941, pp. 84 ( online ).
  9. ^ Report on the progress and industry-related part of the national exhibition on the left bank: NN: Swiss National Exhibition: the left bank . In: The work . tape 26 , no. 5 , 1939, pp. 129 ff., here: 150–151 ( online ).
personal data
SURNAME Rohn, Roland
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss industrial architect
DATE OF BIRTH November 12, 1905
PLACE OF BIRTH Sterkrade
DATE OF DEATH June 11, 1971
Place of death Zurich