Innovationspark

At the Innovation Park in Dübendorf east of Zurich, an empty aircraft hangar built in the 1920s is being converted into a research laboratory for the aviation and space industry. Like a crystal, a new interior with space to work and meet has been inserted inside the former hangar without touching the old shell. Set clear of all the outside walls, this new corpus makes a proud point of its independence while paying homage to the existing building. The finely wrought steel frame, itself a listed monument, dovetails delicately with the newcomer, which retains its distinctive volume and colour. The symbiosis of old and new, of interlocking and detachment, is like a shape-shifting image that can be read in different ways. The original building remains visible at all times. The transparency and clarity of the insert, a readable wooden structure behind a glass front, symbolize the innovative ethos that will inspire the hangar’s future use – a philosophy accentuated by the neutral white of the material canon.