The area on the outskirts of Wädenswil/ZH stood empty for a longer period of time. In 2004, Metron AG constructed a residential development for PSP Properties AG on the site of the disused beer brewery on the "Wädi-Brau". The commercial area was designed for base use: The buildings are located on a steep slope overlooking the main road and directly onto the lake. At the back of the slope is the access to the parking garage.

The owner offered the prospective tenant, Trimble Schweiz GmbH, to expand the office space on their behalf.

One challenge was the proportions of the space and the lighting: the office area is a good hundred meters long, eight meters deep and only has one side lit. The parapet height is somewhat high.

A dense forest of columns carries the loads of two apartment floors above it and displaces the areas very close together; stairwells and climbing zones for building services additionally subdivided the area.

The project provided for an extension on the owner's and tenant's side. The wet rooms were built as part of the basic extension, the extension of the office rooms in consultation with the tenant.

We tried to place the spatially separated functional units - wet rooms, meeting rooms, tea kitchens - between the supports and shafts in such a way that they would be pushed back in their space-defining effect: supports disappear in cupboards, climbing zones in wall surfaces; the materials of the walls, exposed concrete, smooth plaster surfaces and wood-based panels, are no longer clearly assigned to their construction elements, supports become walls, walls become cupboards and cupboards become supports.

Another challenge was the tight schedule. The old lease had already been terminated when we were commissioned with the project. The lock-down was also a special experience. Driving a project forward in the home office had to be learned.