Leuenhof Commercial Building, Bahnhofstrasse 32, Zurich
Image 1: Luca Zanier Photography, Zurich; Image 3: Simon Tanner, NZZ; Image 4: Luxwerk, Zurich
Winner, Structural Engineering Category, Building Award 2021
Special Thanks YES 2021
Honorable Mention Seismic Award 2021
Renovation and refurbishment of the cantonally protected commercial building at Zurich's Paradeplatz. With project-specific, innovative strengthening solutions, the historic supporting structure could be preserved and upgraded for future use.
The seismic strengthening of the listed building presented a particular challenge for the architect and structural engineers. With an external steel sculpture, almost as “art in construction,” the seismic forces from the floor slabs were bundled and dissipated into the ground, without affecting the historically valuable interiors. The slender, weakly reinforced beam slabs from the early days of reinforced concrete construction were strengthened with prestressed CFRP loops. The effectiveness of the newly developed reinforcement measure was verified and confirmed with an in-situ large-scale test.