ABSTRACT
The close collaboration between engineers and architects is pivotal in the design and construction process of Penzel Valier. This approach as exemplified in the SRF News & Sport Center in Zurich, showcases the close intertwining of both disciplines. The paper highlights the building’s complex design, characterized by an indirect flow of forces and challenging construction phases. With reinforced concrete, steel-concrete composites and prefabricated reinforced concrete elements, the final structure has achieved full functionality only after the assembly process was completed. To meet the architectural challenges of long-term flexibility with highly technologized spaces, a lightweight, structurally creative solution was developed, culminating in a hybrid framework of steel and concrete with precast elements. The structure thus does not arise as a system that expands from its basic module to an overarching grid form due to its conditions, but rather, as a response that is both statically and constructively highly singular to a very specific set of prerequisites.
