Discover Germany | Special Theme | Switzerland’s Finest Architects
Sign of the times:
Above and right: Froriep headquarters, ARCH + DESIGN: Forster & Uhl, together with Hürlemann AG. Photos: Beat Bühler.
Building for the future Timelessly modern, streamlined and economical: Forster & Uhl architects can do without sensationalism and instead strive to build for the future. They foster the art of making a lot out of a little, by combining a pragmatic approach with creative joy. “We don’t care for names – what counts is the result,” says architect Christian Forster. TEXT: CORNELIA BRELOWSKI
Forster & Uhl architects work closely together with their clients, and they like to see them happy with the result. The compact team of seven start their research with clearly identifying their target group first. As Christian Forster says, the question of “For whom do we do this?” stands at the beginning of each task. Joy forms a key aspect of the designing process. Creative joy for Forster & Uhl architects concerns both the aesthetic and the functional aspect. Sustainability and durability also play a major role and they take pride in being not only architects but builders as well. As Walter Gropius 112 | Issue 48 | March 2017
famously stated in the Bauhaus manifesto of 1919: “. . . Art may not be taught. They [the art scholars] must return to the workshop”. Depending on the nature of the project at hand, Forster & Uhl consequently also offer both implementation planning and construction supervision. Andres Uhl and Christian Forster started their Zurich-based office in 2005, with first projects such as an apartment building, terrace houses and a dentist’s office. The office states matter of factly: “We apply new techniques and materials, colour, form and structural elements as necessary.” A pragmatic yet aesthetically satisfactory
vision, and their clients thank them for it. Be it theologists, dentists, nobel laureates, lawyers, cooperatives and communities, foundations, or the much quoted “regular guy”, the architects find a way to make them “happy with the result”. Recently, Forster & Uhl have applied their expertise as architects for the restoration of the Swiss Froriep law firm headquarters in Zurich. The office describes itself as an international law firm of the highest standards with an entrepreneurial spirit. Together with designers of Hürlemann AG, Forster & Uhl designed and implemented a complete makeover of the Zurich Froriep building, which happened to coincide with a major personal restructuring and realigning process within the firm itself. The newly designed Froriep headquarters looks like a contemporary, modernised version of the ‘20s New Objectivity style, with clean-cut angles, structuring design elements made of glass, wood and chrome but