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Switzerland Zurich Completed Latitude/Longitude studio Frei + Saarinen Architekten Hohlstrasse 283 CH-8004 Zurich info@freisaarinen.ch Website Year 2007 Type of Building cultural Client City of Zurich Area 266m2 sq feet Cost 1500000 Euro Publications

Conversion and Extension of Kino Xenix, Zurich Hannes Henz, Zurich Description In 1904, several temporary wooden pavilions were erected in Zurich in order to respond to the rising demand for classrooms. In 1984, one of these “temporary” structures was conquered by a group of young film enthusiasts who wanted to setup an alternative cinema. The schoolrooms became the auditorium and the corridor served as a bar. In order to achieve a more efficient, more flexible, and more user-friendly building, we were asked to redesign every single corner inside the existing structure and to project an extension. But how to extend a 100-year-old building? The small scale of the project made it difficult to achieve a convincing result by simply adding or contrasting old to new. It seemed more promising to take the opposite approach, so every opportunity was taken to unify by blurring, copying, and stretching borders, materials, and structural elements. The result is a seamless new whole of old and new.The bar, for example, is one continuous space consisting of two halves from 1904 and 2007. This effect is achieved by a continuation of the existing ceiling, including replicas of the old beams, as well as the mimetic materialization of the extension. The strategy of unification is used on the exterior as well: The roof of the extension is stretched over parts of the existing building in order to fuse old and new. Extra-large riveted aluminum sheets accentuate the sculptural quality of the roofscape. Chimneys are concentrated at one spot; gutters are integrated in order to achieve sharp abstract expression. Dagmar Lorenz, Zurich Hannes Henz, Zurich Frei + Saarinen Architekten, Zurich