City lounge

City Lounge (2013)

Part of the city lounge with bubble lights in front of the synagogue

The city lounge , often referred to as Red Square , is an artistically designed outdoor space in the Bleicheli in the Swiss city of St. Gallen , most of which is located on Raiffeisenplatz .

history

initial situation

The last stage of the Raiffeisen development in Bleicheli was completed in spring 2005 . This ended the construction work of the Swiss Raiffeisen Association in the center of St. Gallen. The redesign of the outdoor spaces marked the end of the work. A competition was held with the aim of developing innovative design ideas that should strengthen the identity of the new quarter. The winning design was submitted by the architect Carlos Martinez and the artist Pipilotti Rist . The client for the competition and the implementation was Raiffeisen Switzerland.

The red carpet of St. Gallen

The artist Pipilotti Rist and the architect Carlos Martinez jointly designed the city lounge as a public “living room” bathed in red that covers the entire area like a carpet. The floor covering made of red-dyed plastic granulate envelops the floor area and the public furnishings such as seating , sculptures and a fountain. With an area of approx. 4600 m ^{2, the} lounge combines all the spaces and remaining rooms in the area into a visually uniform whole.

The city lounge is seen as an artistic examination of the issues of urban space and the public and the characteristics of the location. It is clearly structured and takes up room themes. According to the different usage areas of a lounge, the area is divided into zones, each of which is dedicated to higher-level functions such as reception, cloakroom, foyer, café, etc. The individual areas flow into one another.

The lighting is provided by so-called “bubbles”, cloud-like light bodies that are suspended in such a way that they give the impression of floating.

criticism

The design led to criticism. The coarse-grained covering soon bleached out and got cracks and dents. The city administration subsequently developed a concept for cleaning and maintenance and procured a special vehicle.