Case Study
Swiss Museum of Transport – Road Transport Hall
Details:
Program/Function: Exhibition building for cars, motorcycles, lorries, and bicycles
Location: Lucerne, Switzerland
Year: 1999 (Design); 2009 (Completion)
Design Team: Gigon/Guyer Architects; Team GG: Caspar Bresch (Team and Project Manager), Mark Ziörjen, Damien Andenmatten, Gaby Kägi, Gilbert Isermann;
Karl Steiner AG, Lucerne (Total Contractor);
Schweingruber Zulauf Landschaftsarchitekten, Zurich (Landscape Architecture);
Henauer Gugler AG, Lucerne (Structural Engineer);
Scherler AG, Lucerne (Electrical Engineer);
Wirthensohn AG, Lucerne (Building Services Engineer);
Exhibition Design Consultants: Lars Müller, Baden and Peter Regli, Zurich
Client: Swiss Museum of Transport, Lucerne
Reuse Information:
Facade built using reused Swiss road signage
The Museum features a façade cladding composed of recycled sheet-metal traffic signs. As the architects put it: “The signboard walls, which spatially delimit the Road Transport Hall, indirectly refer to the great freedom of mobility afforded by private transport, which is directed and regulated with the help of such boards. Furthermore, they also refer to numerous locations near and far that might be the home towns and cities of the visitors, who arrive via diverse traffic routes and using different modes of transport in order to discover more about the subject here”. For the rear façade, they opted for a different concept: the signs are reverse-mounted, showing untreated metal sheets to the neighboring buildings. The preliminary project envisaged a façade made out of recycled metal from car bodies.