Tamedia

Tamedia moved into their first building on the Werdareal in the Aussersihl district of the city of Zurich in 1902. Over the years, the publishing house added to its stock of buildings. On Stauffacherquai (Quay), along the river Sihl, Tamedia now owns the whole side of one street. The newly-constructed seven-storey building was designed by the Japanese architect, Shigeru Ban, as it was the company's wish to unite workstations from various locations in the Werdareal district. In the new building, approximately 480 employees who work for the 20 Minuten newspaper, the Tages-Anzeiger newspaper and other media of the company have a qualitatively high standard workplace.
The building's construction is unusual. The multi-storey town house is a skeleton structure made of wood - not only the supports and beams, but also the connections at the joints. The spruce wood used is of very high quality and comes from contiguous woodland at an altitude of 1,000 metres above sea level. The generous glass façade provides a bright and friendly feeling of space.

The preparatory work for the gigantic wooden construction took three years. For Tamedia, timber construction experts in Gossau milled 3,600 spruces to columns and beams using computers. In Zurich construction workers assembled this giant construction kit. No screws, nails or steel connectors were used, but beech bolts to stabilise the lattice-shaped wooden supporting structure. Cooperating with one of the most visionary architects in the world was also a challenging task. A concept had to be developed for fire protection that took the particular features of the building into account. To compensate for deviations from current rules, a wide range of measures were incorporated into the concept in consultation with the fire police, such as sprinkler protection, surveillance offices, stairways, corridors, technical rooms and the atrium in the lobby with a fire alarm system.