Main image: The two apartment buildings with a shared garden; Bahnhaldenstrasse, Zurich. © Ponnie images, Aachen Above: The ‘Alte Mühle’ in Aarburg. © Jürgensen Klement
Creating identity through architecture For Jürgensen Klement architects, it is important to recognise that architecture is about creating a sense of identity in a built and therefore artificial environment. Steffen Jürgensen and Thomas Klement founded their Zurich-based architectural office only three years ago, after they had worked as project architects for many years.
rooms are organised around a core and are connected to allow movement in a circle, displaying the idea of connectivity. Large loggias function as ‘garden rooms’, merging the inside and outside world.
TEXT: JESSICA HOLZHAUSEN
Another project worth mentioning is the ‘Alte Mühle’ apartment block in Aarburg, designed for a pension fund. The biggest challenges here were a busy road and an old castle wall on its northern side. This had been dealt with in moving secondary rooms like kitchens, staircases or bathrooms to the noisy façade and inserting light wells as special moments into the apartments.
“We often think of architecture as a language that can compose powerful and poetic narratives if put together in a meaningful way,” says Steffen Jürgensen. What he stresses here is the social potential of buildings. “Almost all our activities take place in buildings or man-made external spaces. Being a vessel for human activity, architecture is the place where people come together and socially engage.”This is why design is so important and has to be done responsibly to provide an adequate framework. Architecture should always be about people. “The invention of the city is probably the most successful model for 80 | Issue 41 | August 2016
bringing people together and encouraging social exchange,” says Jürgensen. Now think of a family sitting around a kitchen table or neighbours meeting in a courtyard, nodding at each other while passing by. Buildings not only provide the infrastructure for these meetings, but can also inform them in a positive way. The two partners met while working in the same office in London. Today, after winning a competition for a cooperative housing scheme, they focus on questions of dwelling. In 2015 they proposed two apartment buildings with a shared garden on a plot with beautiful mature trees, commissioned by a private client and the local church. All
To understand a place and what it should become, Jürgensen Klement uses various design methods – from simple sketches to CAD drawing and models. It is always a process going back and forth between thinking and making until the best solution is found. www.j-k-a.net