Rosengarten Urban Complex
Luftbild Gesamtareal
Durchwegung des Areals
Gebäudeansicht im Zentrum des Areals
Wohnraum mit Loggia
Grundriss

Rosengarten Urban Complex

LocationSt. Gallerstraße, CH-9320 Arbon
ClientBerninvest AG
Building period2010–2012
VolumeGFA28.600m²
ProcedureStudy commission 2007, 1st Prize

The history of the Roman city of Arbor Felix, now known as Arbon, along with its historic building forms and facade structures, serves as a visual repository for the design deployed in the Rosengarten urban complex. Six individual buildings are arranged to create two offset rows, linked by a one-storey base section. A semi-public rose garden on the roof of the base section serves as a shared recreational space for people living in the ensemble. This urban complex forms a small city-in-the-city: readily legible residential units, each with its own individual flair, come together to form an urban design entity. The facades of the residential blocks are determined by framing structures that play with the dialectic of untreated and treated materials. The grid of coloured concrete has a smooth surface, while the infill elements, which are in cast concrete, express the rough structuring found in stone quarry walls. Judicious deployment of just a handful of different materials imbues the ensemble with a clear character and a sense of calm.