NICOLA BAVIERA
Nicola Baviera was born in Milan in 1976 and grew up in Zurich. He studied architecture at ETH Zurich, the Tokyo Geidai University of Fine Arts and Music, and the University of Liechtenstein, where he completed his studies in 2009 with the independent master’s thesis BEYOND ALTSTETTEN.
In 2014, after holding various positions at firms such as Graber Pulver, Fuhrimann Hächler, and Jakob Steib, Nicola Baviera founded his own architecture office in Zurich.
In his work, Nicola Baviera strives to incorporate different architectural and societal ideas into his designs. His projects aim to fulfill a social responsibility while also considering economic and cultural aspects. The realized projects are not merely intended to be seen as works of art but rather as human platforms for diverse ways of living.
BURKHALTER3 FEDERICA FOFFA4
1 Paul Schneeberger, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 2012
2 Luciano Motta, The BuiltWork of Giuseppe Pizzigoni, Brikhäuser 2022
3 Architect BSA, SWB, VSI, Zurich 2025
4 Doctor in History and Philosophy, Pietrasanta 2025
THERE IS NO FORMAL WHIMSY, ONLY PURE TECTONICS.
Nicola Baviera is an Italian-Swiss architect who, after completing his university studies, collaborated with leading architecture firms in Zurich before opening his own atelier in 2014. Until 2024, his work primarily involved renovating buildings by expanding their volumes as necessary while consistently adhering to a precise architectural concept shared with clients.
The year 2024 marks a significant turning point in Nicola Baviera’s design career. This marks a clearly defined professional transition: the construction of a building from the ground up on the outskirts of the city. This project allows him to fully express his architectural identity, as the clients place no design restrictions on the architect.
Surrounded by bourgeois middle-class architecture, the building serves as a decisive counterpoint to Benno Loderer’s critical Hüsli Schweiz1. Nicola Baviera elects to build in this landscape through contrast, refusing to compromise with the surroundings: his building boasts a strong, autonomous expression, and yet, upon observation, one notices how it integrates into its context, positioned at the edge of the topographical escarpment and extending into the landscape with a view of the Mittelland.
The uniform use of material—the silver-coloured corrugated sheets enveloping the entire building—highlights the horizontal nature of the architectural volume. The plan is divided into four parts, and the façades are proportionally adapted to the context. Overhangs, recesses, and symmetries break up the mass of the building. Curiously, the entrance façade, with its central gable, stands out as the only architectural element reminiscent of traditional houses in the area. Three volumes of the box-shaped building project into space; like large ‘drawers’, they disrupt the form and provide the building with strength and identity.
The roof transforms into a landscape, showcasing a geometric variety as a tectonic experiment that pushes the boundaries of regulatory distances. I am reminded of the expressive forms and innovative designs of the roofs at Pizzigoni’s Casa Nani2 in Bergamo, an Italian rationalist revered for his mastery of proportions, structures, and details — an ardent advocate of experimentation — where plans, forms, proportions, materials, and construction embody fundamental rational ideas. There is no formal whimsy, only pure tectonics.
Thus, in Urdorf’s house, the spatial perception from the inside to the outside is crucial. The interplay of volumes in section generates a spatial sequence that is particularly striking on the top floor, featuring a captivating structure that elevates the house’s interior and underscores the building’s character.
APARTMENT HOUSE URDORF
URDORF, SWITZERLAND
2022 - 2024
The new building is situated in a context of small-scale multi-family houses from the 1930s, as well as two new buildings from 2015. The planned house is oriented orthogonally to the Bahnhofstrasse in Urdorf, continuing the alignment of the existing structures.
The rectangular volume is slightly embedded into the terrain on the street side and, by applying a split-level design, relates to the ridge heights of the neighboring houses on the valley side. From the street side, the building height blends subtly into the existing settlement structure. Due to the sloping terrain, the three-story residential building includes an additional basement level on the northwest side, which serves as a garage in the front area and provides ancillary spaces in the rear.
The articulation of the roof creates a dialogue between the slanted surfaces and the traditional gabled houses in the neighborhood. The three dormer structures form a unified composition within the roofscape, with varying eaves heights relating to the eaves of the houses across the street.
The three northwest-facing apartments are classically divided into separate night and day areas. The living/dining area with the kitchen is set off from the more intimate areas of the units by a three-step level difference. From the entrance, a corridor leads to a central vestibule, which connects the three bedrooms and two bathrooms.
The façade is characterized by an untreated, mineral-based natural gray fiber cement wave cladding, set on a concrete base. This contrasts with a metallic roof, where selective areas are covered with photovoltaic modules. This contrasting materials reflect the expression of neighboring buildings, which are distinguished by a combination of traditional roughcast plaster and dark tiled roofs.
Golden berries, periwinkle, and anemones, along with ornamental grasses and a spacious flower meadow, shape the surrounding landscape. The access ramp and garage forecourt are filled with fine gravel. All terrain transitions and adjustments to neighboring properties have been designed to connect seamlessly with the neighbouring gardens, as desired by all parties involved.This creates a generous and open outdoor space.
01 Roof structure for pitched roof
Standing seam roof 2.5 cm
Three-layer board DSP C+ 2.7 cm
Counter battens 60/60 mm 6.0 cm
Underroof
Rafters
01 Roof structure pitched roof with PV system
3.3 cm PV system
4 cm Construction battens
8 cm Counter batten 60/80
Underroof foil lt 230, sd 0.1m, min. 80°
6 cm Soft fiberboard 0.044 W/mk
Rafters insulated with 20 cm Glass wool 0.034 W/mk OSB 15 mm vapor barrier /partly vapor barrier Db 90
02 Wall componente
3.6 cm Eternit corrugated sheet / rear ventilation
4 cm Construction level
0.6 cm Base plaster with mesh / smoothing
Flumroc insulation board
24 cm COMPACT PRO 1 (0.034 W/mk)
0.8 cm Mortar, leveling layer
18 cm Concrete wall
FEATURED WORK
APARTMENT HOUSE URDORF URDORF, SWITZERLAND
2022-2024
Office
Nicola Baviera Architekten GmbH, Zürich
Client Private
Collaborators
Nicola Baviera, Dipl. Arch. MScArch
Anna Cito, Drafter EFZ
Structural Engineer
Marti + Dietschweiler, Männedorf
Electrical Engineer
Prioli Partner, Lachen
Heating Ventilation Sanitary Engineer
W + L Partner, Rapperswil-Jona
Building physics
EK Energiekonzepte, Zürich
Area 671 m2
Images
© Valentin Jeck with exception of page 05 and 62 © Nicola Baviera
COLLECTION
AMAG LONG BOOKS
VOLUME LB 32
TITLE
NICOLA BAVIERA
apartment house urdorf
ISBN 978-989-36026-5-2
PUBLICATION DATE April 2025
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF AND GENERAL MANAGER
Ana Leal
EDITORIAL TEAM
Ana Leal, architect
Filipa Figueiredo Ferreira, designer
João Soares, architect
Ricardo Figueiredo, designer
PRINTING Maiadouro
LEGAL
DEPOSIT 480255/21
RUN NUMBER
1000 numbered copies
PUBLISHER AND OWNER AMAG publisher
VAT NUMBER 513 818 367
CONTACTS hello@amagpublisher.com www.amagpublisher.com
/1000
LONG BOOKS COLLECTION
LB 01 DAVID ADJAYE mole house
LB 02 NICHOLAS BURNS guimarães chapel
LB 03 DAVID ADJAYE the webster
LB 04 CARVALHO ARAÚJO casa na caniçada
LB 05 ANDRÉ CAMPOS | JOANA MENDES centro coordenador de transportes
LB 06 ANDRÉ CAMPOS | JOANA MENDES PEDRO GUEDES DE OLIVEIRA fábrica em barcelos
LB 07 DAVID ADJAYE winter park library & events center
LB 08 DAVID ADJAYE 130 william tower
LB 09 BRANDENBERGER KLOTER ARCHITECTS community hall laufenburg
LB 10 BRANDENBERGER KLOTER ARCHITECTS
school pfeffingen
LB 11 BRANDENBERGER KLOTER ARCHITECTS
double kindergarten rüti
LB 12 BRANDENBERGER KLOTER ARCHITECTS
school aarwangen
LB 13 BRANDENBERGER KLOTER ARCHITECTS
school birrwil
LB 14 ANGELO CANDALEPAS the castle
LB 15 PAUL MURDOCH ARCHITECTS flight 93 national memorial
LB 16 ÁLVARO SIZA monte da lapa volume l
LB 17 SO – IL amant
LB 18 AFF spore initiative
LB 19 LYNCH ARCHITECTS n2
LB 20 VIANA DE LIMA casa das marinhas
LB 21 SPASM parikrama house
LB 22 JOSEP FERRANDO social center
LB 23 SJB 19 waterloo Street
LB 24 KENGO KUMA cam
LB 25 TOMOAKI UNO terabe guest house
LB 26 AM2 Arquitectos | ARENAS & ASOCIADOS | NOARQ halo
LB 27 LYNCH ARCHITECTS westminster coroner’s court
LB 28 CHRIST & GANTENBEIN swiss national museum
LB 29 CAMILO REBELO côa museum
LB 30 CAMILO REBELO ovo
LB 31 CAMILO REBELO mim
LB 32 NICOLA BAVIERA apartment house urdorf, is the thirty-second title from LONG BOOKS COLLECTION.
AMAG LONG BOOKS COLLECTION brings together a unique selection of projects that establish new paradigms in architecture.
With a contemporary and timeless conceptual graphic language, the 1000 numbered copies of each LONG BOOK will document works with different scales and formal contexts that extend the boundaries of architectural expression.