Theo Hotz

Hardturmpark, Zurich

Vienna Central Station

Telecommunication center Herdern

Mulligen letter distribution center

Hotel Astoria, Lucerne

Theo Hotz (born on August 2, 1928 in Oberrieden ; died on March 19, 2018 in Meilen ) was a Swiss architect .

Life

After an apprenticeship as a structural draftsman, the architect Theo Hotz, born in Oberrieden in the canton of Zurich in 1928, opened his own office in Zurich in 1949 at the age of 21. After a partnership with Fedor Altherr (1950–55) and Max P. Kollbrunner (1956–65), it was converted into a stock corporation in 1974 .

Theo Hotz Partner AG was founded in 2011 . At the same time, Theo Hotz handed over the operative business to new partners (Stefan Adler, Peter Berger, Robert Surbeck); In 2015 he retired to the Board of Directors.

Theo Hotz was involved in a variety of ways on a cultural and architectural level. He was a board member of the Basel Architecture Museum (1995–1999) and the building committee of the City of Zurich (1986–1998). Since 1981 he has been a member of the Association of Swiss Engineers and Architects (SIA) and the Association of Swiss Architects (BSA) . Together with his wife Elsa, he was an important art collector and was involved in the Kunsthaus Zürich collection commission from 1978 to 1987 .

plant

Important milestones in the early work were the construction of the district school in Wettingen (1954–1957) and the Hotel Astoria in Lucerne (1955–1957).

In the seventies and eighties he also became internationally known with typologically very technologically-related large buildings such as the telecommunications operations center in Zurich-Herdern (1972–1978) and the parcel distribution center in Zurich-Mülligen (1981–1985). Both structures also represented a new urban gate situation on the Zurich city limits. With the construction of the parcel distribution center, he realized one of the largest buildings in Switzerland with a space of around one million cubic meters.

In the new EMPA building in St. Gallen (1993–1996), photovoltaic technology was used on a large scale. The office completed the construction of Hall 1 at Messe Basel (1998–1999) in a time frame of just seven months.

Since the end of the 1980s, Hotz has been building buildings free of historicizing nostalgia, including the Apollo am Stauffacher office building , the Löwenplatz building, the Grünenhof conference center and the Feldpausch building on Bahnhofstrasse in downtown Zurich. His residential buildings or housing estates are also rooted in the tradition of modernity. The range extends from multi-family houses on Bäckerstrasse to large-scale settlement projects such as the Kappeli area in Altstetten or the Regina-Kaegi-Hof in Oerlikon.

The office building of the computer company Paninfo on the Autobahn in Brüttisellen , which was completed in 2002, and the Sihlcity shopping center in Zurich in 2007 attracted attention .

honors and awards

Hotz has received several awards for good buildings from the city of Zurich . In 1988 he received the international RS Reynolds Memorial Award from the American Institute of Architects for the parcel distribution center in Mülligen. In 1990 he won the European Constructa Prize for industrial architecture with two awards. In 1997 he was awarded honorary membership in the Association of German Architects BDA . In 1998 he was awarded an honorary doctorate in technical sciences from the ETH Zurich and in 2000 he was accepted as a member of the Royal Institute of British Architects RIBA . In 2002 the ETH honored him with the extensive exhibition “Theo Hotz 1949–2002” in the ETH main building.

In his obituary, Andres Herzog pays tribute to the “precise steel and glass structures” in which “the mechanization and automation are given an architectural form” and which claim to “draw creative power from [technology]”.

Theo Hotz donated the Theo Award for Young Architects, a travel grant for graduates that will be awarded for the first time in 2018.

Buildings (selection)

• District school , Wettingen, 1957, 1978
• Hotel Astoria , Lucerne , 1957
• Telecommunications Operations Center , Zurich-Herdern, 1978
• Buchgrindelstrasse , condominiums, Wetzikon 1979–85
• Postal Operations Center , Zurich-Mülligen, 1985
• Marti AG , Zurich-Oerlikon, 1985
• Transcolorwerke K. Vogelsang GmbH , Haßmersheim am Neckar, 1985
• Grünenhof , conference building, Zurich 1987–91
• Eidgenössische Materialprüfungsanstalt (St. Gallen) , laboratory and administration building of EMPA , St. Gallen, 1987–96
• Apollo office building , Zurich, 1991
• Office building on Löwenplatz , Zurich, 1992
• ABB service building Konnex , Baden, 1995
• Dental Institute of the University of Zurich, Zurich, 1983–98
• Exhibition hall , Basel , 1999
• Kappeli residential development , Zurich-Altstetten, 2000
• Apartment building at Bäckerstrasse , Zurich-Aussersihl, 2000
• MParc (Surseepark I retail park), Sursee , 2003
• Sihlcity , Zurich, 2007
• Aarau railway station , Aarau, 2008–2010
• SkyKey office and commercial building , Zurich, 2014
• Vienna Central Station , Vienna, 2012–2015
• Hardturmpark residential and service building, construction site A2 , Zurich, 2015
• in planning: Aarau station, stage 2 , 2010–2018
• in planning: Zurich Police and Justice Center (PJZ) , Zurich, 2012–2020
• in planning: public facility at Bern railway station , 2007–2025
• in planning: RBS Bahnhof Bern , 2025

literature

• Dagmar Böcker: Theo Hotz. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland . November 17, 2006 .
• Ulrike Jehle-Schulte Strathaus, Bernhard Klein, Leonardo Bezzola (illustrator): Theo Hotz: Building as a calling. Selected recent buildings and projects. Architekturmuseum Basel 1994, ISBN 3-905065231 .
• Theo Hotz, Elsa Hotz, Margrit Hahnloser-Ingold: From the Theo and Elsa Hotz collection. Benteli 1998, ISBN 3716511366 .
• Tomaso Zanoni: Hotz, Theo. In: Isabelle Rucki and Dorothee Huber (eds.): Architectural Lexicon of Switzerland - 19./20. Century. Birkhäuser, Basel 1998, ISBN 3-7643-5261-2 , p. 278 ff.
• Hubertus Adam, Ulrike Jehle-Schulte Strathaus, Philip Origin: Theo Hotz, Architecture 1949–2002. Lars Müller Baden 2003, ISBN 3-03-778002-9 .
• Werner Blaser : Weishaupt - Theo Hotz. Niggli 2004, ISBN 3721205413 .
• René Furer: Theo Hotz Sihlcity. 2009, ISBN 3952341916 .
• Andres Herzog: He was a great figure in Zurich architecture . In: Tagesanzeiger . Tamedia, Zurich ( tagesanzeiger.ch [accessed on March 22, 2018]). (Obituary)

Web links

Commons : Buildings by Theo Hotz  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Theo Hotz in the catalog of the German National Library
• Theo Hotz. In: arch INFORM .
• Theo Hotz AG website

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Hubertus Adam, Ulrike Jehle-Schulte Strathaus, Philip Origin: Theo Hotz, Architecture 1949–2002 , Lars Müller Baden 2003, ISBN 3-03-778002-9 , p. 13 f.
2. ↑ Entry Theo Hotz on theohotz.ch , accessed on February 22, 2016
3. ↑ Entry Theo Hotz ( Memento of the original from January 22, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on theohotz.ch , accessed on January 22, 2016  
4. ↑ ^{a b c} Theo Hotz. In: arch INFORM ; accessed on February 23, 2016.
5. ↑ Christa Zeller: Swiss architecture guide; Volume 1: Northeast and Central Switzerland. Zurich: Werk Verlag 1996. ISBN 3-909145-11-6 , p. 203
6. ↑ Christa Zeller: Swiss architecture guide; Volume 1: Northeast and Central Switzerland. Zurich: Werk Verlag 1996. ISBN 3-909145-11-6 , p. 129
7. ↑ Christa Zeller: Swiss architecture guide; Volume 1: Northeast and Central Switzerland. Zurich: Werk Verlag 1996. ISBN 3-909145-11-6 , p. 126
8. ^ Theo Hotz's work in an exhibition at ETH. Architect, artist, "Masters of Architecture" , NZZ , January 5, 2002
9. ↑ Andres Herzog: He was a great figure in Zurich architecture . In: Tagesanzeiger . Tamedia, Zurich ( tagesanzeiger.ch [accessed on March 22, 2018]).
10. ↑ THEO sponsorship award