"schwerelos" Sankt Gallen, Schweiz | michelangelo acciaro

Refurbishment Waaghaus New spaces are floating alongside and within the historic building shell, which provides flexible room for various events. complex functional programs combine to a large single vision. The geometrical landscape of all newly integrated structural elements results from the intersection of the historic waaghaus-walls and the surrounding urban fabric. A water surface, tracing the former moat, cuts up the walkway at the back facade. Bridges connect the underground and the ground level to the adjacent pedestrian underpass. The new internal volume represents a single coherent organism, to be understood as a public multi-storey 'piazza'. It seems, that the main theme of static construction - gravity - is almost successfully overcome. gravity is hardly perceivable within the new structural elements of the building, just like the multifunctional hall on the upper floor is a suspended cone, seemingly exempt from gravity. Changing points of view, spacial planes, bridges and walkways represent a gradually increasing space experience, in which the polyvalent hall forms a self-concentrated climax. In the evening hours, the strict materiality of the nestled geometries is superposed by the colours of several noctilucent volumes, forming a visible entrance to the historical town centre and to the marketplace. Modern elements, such as concrete floors, ramps, walkways and walls of weathering steel contrast the historical walls deliberately. The building is part of the modern city, but retains its historic characteristics. The new structural pieces hardly affect the historic shell, which stands for itself, just as the modern interior speaks his own language: inside is outside, and outside is inside. Weightless. michelangelo acciaro © michelangelo acciaro architetti