kh

orpheus
autumn term 2009 - professors b. holzer, t. kobler, assistant s. haar

with dominik boos and tobias schafroth

preliminary work

the site of the project is a car park in the middle of the old town of zurich. from the outside only ramps are visible. they collect cars and pedestrians and lead them into the car park. themselves trajectories of motion they are like frozen motion in the air. once inside, new levels can be discovered one after the other. the subterranean car park is enormous. and on top of it, there is a little walled park, almost forgotten.

the underground car park and the little park on top bring the notion of heaven and hell to mind. the myth of orpheus and eurydice could have played there. it describes orpheus' journey to the nether world on the search for his departed bride eurydice. such atmospheres and associations were captured in collages and collections of words, and then consolidated to a space allocation plan for a center for media, sound and light.

according to associations the rooms are divided in a upper and in a nether world. the upper world meaning to be built on top of the car park and the nether world into the car park. to make sure that the car park can still be used in its original function it has to be examined thorougly.