Sihl City Green Wall

  • December 17, 2020 10:53 PM PST
    At Sihl City, the landmark shopping center planned by architect Theo
    Hotz of Zürich, Jakob AG was able to implement several installations
    that play a key role in the design of the facility. They clearly
    illustrate that the company’s products not only inspire aesthetic
    innovations but also offer cost-effectiveness benefits.To get more news
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    Inaugurated
    in the spring of 2007 and stretching over an effective area of approx.
    100,000 m2, Sihl City in Zürich Wiedikon is one of Switzerland’s largest
    and most advanced shopping and leisure complexes. Planned by architect
    Theo Hotz and built at a cost of approx. CHF 620 million, the large
    facility on the premises of a paper mill on the Sihl river attracts
    20,000 visitors a day, offering a broad range of shops, restaurants,
    entertainment venues, and cultural events. Jakob AG participated in
    several facets of this project which also represents a landmark from an
    architectural point of view. The eastern façade of the parking garage
    with a capacity of 850 cars was equipped with a “green wall” planned by
    Jakob AG, and the southern façade of the same building was covered with a
    stainless steel net across a large surface. In addition, Webnet
    structures were prominently used in the hallways of the shopping center.

    With
    a height of 23 meters and a width of 25.5 meters, the green wall of the
    parking facility at Sihl City represents a category of façade greening
    projects whose sheer size and resulting loads make it impossible to
    apply standard solutions. Jakob AG designed the training systems in
    cooperation with the planners of Raderschall, a Meilen-based landscape
    architecture firm, and implemented this façade greening task as a
    subcontractor. The scope of delivery included the planning and supply of
    the training systems but also their installation on site by experienced
    Jakob technicians. The relatively wide-meshed training structure,
    formed by vertical and horizontal ropes of various thicknesses, is
    suspended at a distance of 70 cm in front of the eight-stories high,
    sectional-glass lined eastern façade of the parking facility in order to
    provide sufficient growing space for the plants which comprise in this
    case mainly Chinese wisteria and birthworts. Especially designed, rugged
    steel spacers permanently connected to the supporting structure of the
    building ensure safe anchorage of the ropes. The distribution of the
    spacers, mounted to the slabs of the second, fourth, sixth, and eighth
    floors, follows a clear-cut grid pattern that matches the facility’s
    façade design which is characterized by a vertical strip pattern. The
    same applies to the vertical ropes of the training structure which
    optimally matches the graphically strong aspect of the façade.

    While
    the green wall on the eastern façade of the parking garage is
    particularly remarkable for its sheer size, the curtain over the
    building’s southern façade with Webnet represents a hitherto unique
    application of this product. It is impressive with regard to both design
    and cost-effectiveness. For this façade, architect Theo Hotz wanted a
    “skin-like”, large-area structure that would preserve the original
    character and aspect of this sober and practical building to the
    greatest possible extent. A fine-meshed stainless steel net turned out
    to be the optimal solution of this task. Viewed from a distance, the
    Webnet appears here like a film tightly stretched over the edges of the
    fairfaced concrete building. Only a close view reveals the fine-meshed
    structure of the stainless steel net which is very unobtrusively
    attached to the front surfaces of cantilevered floor slabs. A unique
    visual effect is also created by the Webnet on the internal façade of
    the parking garage. Here, the visitor is offered a largely unimpeded
    view which prevents the claustrophobic feeling that many people
    experience inside parking facilities. And to comfort more anxious souls,
    the external perimeters of the floors are additionally secured by a
    solid railing arranged in front of the Webnet curtain. Thanks to Webnet,
    Theo Hotz was able to design a façade that is not just architecturally
    unique. The solution, implemented at relatively low cost, is also
    convincing from the cost-effectiveness point of view – not least because
    of the low maintenance costs of the stainless steel net.

    Almost
    as remarkable as the Webnet façade of the parking facility is the design
    of the stairways inside Sihl City, where stainless steel nets replace
    the conventional banisters. This applies especially to the spiral
    staircases whose cores are secured with net stockings. The stockings are
    attached to the concrete ceiling of the staircase with a metal hoop and
    held in shape by vertically arranged stainless steel ropes running
    along the internal surface and fixed to the lateral surfaces of the
    slabs and steps. The seamless nets, finished at the factory, were
    installed on site in record time by Jakob AG technicans. Cost
    considerations also influenced the choice of Webnet at Sihl City, but in
    addition to the price advantage, the architect was fascinated by the
    possibility of securing a flight of stairs with a minimum amount of
    material without compromising the lucid and pure appearance of the
    architectural assets. Quite to the contrary: the tightly stretched
    stainless steel stocking visually emphasizes the cylindrical form of the
    central core, an effect that could not be achieved with a conventional
    banister.