29.09.2020

Bespoke ceramic façade for Lucerne

Lucerne, Switzerland – The façade at Kapellgasse 4 in Lucerne’s Old Town has been completed. After a project competition and the nomination of the winner, the planning phase started. It is a residential and commercial building at the prominent location Kappelplatz in Lucerne. The jury chose the design by the Zurich Joos & Mathys Architekten AG. The winning project, named Nocturne, can now be visited in Lucerne.

Bespoke ceramic façade

The façade consists of over 28 different shapes. Numerous color specifications were given in the context of the city’s history of emblems. The result is a customized building envelope. Facade columns, mullions, window lintels and sills were planned individually and manufactured by hand. A particular challenge were the large-format angular elements of the façade. In addition to specially designed firing racks, even the firing tools were thought up and manufactured according to the specific project. The ceramic material used for the building also has a special composition due to the highly transparent effect glaze. The result is a lively, strongly handcrafted looking facade. The individual pieces left the factory numbered, in order to be pre-elemented. Ultimately, the façade elements were backfilled with concrete and transported by the processor to construction site. The result is a high-quality ceramic façade that blends unpretentiously into its urban environment. With many different shapes and few repetitions of the ceramics, these 600 m² once again make us a façade manufacturer.

A comprehensive article (in German) on the genesis of “Zwischen Geschichte und Zukungst” can be found on the website Swiss Architects: click here for the article.

Development of the substructure; Execution and installation planning of the façade: gft FASSADEN AG, St. Gallen
Concrete processor: Steenfelder Betonwerk, Westoverledingen
Architects: Joos & Mathys Architects AG, Zurich
Custom-made ceramic façade: m&r Manufaktur GmbH
Photos: gft FASSADEN AG; m&r Manufaktur GmbH
Visualization: Joos & Mathys Architects AG

If you have any questions regarding the project or individual façade production, please do not hesitate to contact us.

email manufaktur@mkw.eu
phone: +49 681 85 96 363