The new residential building on Badenerstrasse is conceived as a set of cosmopolitan apartments. It assimilates the big-city frictions of the surroundings – wedged between the Seebahn railway cutting, the bustling Lochergut and the tranquil Sihlfeld neighbourhood – and translates them into a positive feeling of urban living.

The apartments are designed as hall-sized apartments have two fronts. The occupants cook and eat facing the panorama of Badenerstrasse, while the living areas, loggias and bedrooms are more secluded facing the quieter Meinrad-Lienert-Strasse.

In character, the apartments oscillate between a loft and a conventional spatial layout. During the day, with the doors open, the spaces combine and flow together; at night this is replaced by the privacy of a traditional apartment. Sanded underlay floors and object-like chrome-steel kitchens complement the exposed wooden ceilings. Concrete beams and slender steel supports are reminiscent of a converted warehouse.

The ground floor is articulated as a flexible urban space and with its prominent situation is ideal to accommodate a café or restaurant.

The structure is composed as a sustainable hybrid timber construction based on a column–slab principle, with exposed stacked-board ceilings and top-screed floors. The facades consist of sculptural parapet bands made from recycled motorway crash barriers. These unconventional ready-mades challenge the viewer. They subvert any pretentiousness, instead signalling dynamism, change, diversity and openness.