Research building GLC ETH Zurich: Slope stabilization and Facade Engineering

The building is located in a 25 meter deep slope cut, which required an unusual supporting structure. In close collaboration with Boltshauser Architekten, we developed a new type of slope stabilization structure. This consists of a 17-meter-high retaining walls and fourteen 25-meter-deep, pre-stressed diaphragm walls. The unique construction made it possible to dispense with permanent anchors and thus prevent structural encroachment on neighboring plots.

The structure of the building consists of a loosely reinforced, flexible skeleton construction with visible steel columns, stabilized by the access cores. In the tradition of Otto Rudolf Salvisberg, Roger Boltshauser, architect for the new ETH Zurich research laboratory, has designed a double façade in Steel and Glass with glass structures and concrete element parapets. We designed the structure of the façade made of glass blocks and glass as an independent, statically determined truss construction in steel. We used a mock-up of a façade corner to gain experience in the manufacture and assembly of the entire façade.