Projekte

March 7, 2008

HOSOYA SCHAEFER Architects win 1st prize for a private airport competition in St. Moritz - Samedan, Switzerland

Engadin Airport AG has announced that Hosoya Schaefer Architects won the first prize in the competition for designing its new airport buildings. Engadin Airport near St. Moritz - Samedan, Switzerland, held a competition for a new airport building and announced a winning design on February 4, 2008. In addition to the operational facilities, the program includes a large restaurant, a hotel, facilities for events, and hangars for aircrafts, helicopters and gliders. Overall a total of 28’000 sqm is planned including parking space.

The winning project titled “Sungate” proposes a monolithic building that combines all the different functions into one long shape creating a clear edge to the airfield. In the center of the building the hangar for aircrafts is combined with a large three-storey high lobby space creating a generous light filled gate mediating between the airfield and the valley. The lobby acts as a programmatic hinge that allows for combining the different areas of the building into multiple scenarios of use. Thermal solar collectors on the roof over the hangar are feeding large water tanks that store solar energy while the building itself is built as a light construction, a hybrid structure combining aluminum and wood. With the addition of a wood pellet furnace, the building is planned to be heated to 100% by renewable energy. With a large south-oriented terrace, various additional functions and the central lobby, the airport will become a destination for locals and international guests alike. The design was developed in collaboration with Mitsuhiro Kanada / Arup London for structure and Waldhauser Haustechnik AG, Basel for MEP services.

About HOSOYA SCHAEFER ARCHITECTS
HOSOYA SCHAEFER ARCHITECTS is an international practice for contemporary architecture, strategies and research based in Zurich, Switzerland. Hiromi Hosoya and Markus Schaefer founded the firm in 2003. The firm won a ContractWorld Award 2008 for their first realized project, a restaurant built for Autostadt, the theme park and communications platform for the Volkswagen Group in Wolfsburg, Germany. Current projects of the firm include a new building for the La Rinascente department store (14,000 m2) and an office building for Risanamento Spa (27,000 m2) in Milano Santa Giulia in Italy. Both Hiromi Hosoya and Markus Schaefer are currently professors at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste, Wien, Austria.

HOSOYA SCHAEFER ARCHITECTS