Vesper No. 8 | Vesper | Spring-Summer 2023
Giorgio Azzariti
Guarding Dual Natures. The Synthes Headquarters by Studio Märkli
Keywords
Märkli, Synthes, tectonics,
order, dual
In 2007,
Peter Märkli is asked to design the headquarters of world-leading biomedical
engineering company Synthes in Solothurn, Switzerland’s baroque
jewel. He is asked not to confront
this architectural gem directly, but rather its contemporary counterpart: the
periphery. Yet, the dual nature of the site's specifics and the
broader city’s history – the anonymous modern expansion and the
lush historical pre-existence – becomes the starting point to design a
building whose massive dimensions transcend the local scale, relating directly
to Solothurn’s historical and natural landmarks, allowing it to conceal
itself with the landscape. Its composing elements – columns, knots, beams
– testify on how architectural models of times past can still have a
vitality in the present, while the building’s overall gesture of tectonic
prowess balances apparently opposite natures: baroque order and peripherical
uncertainty, vastness and disguise, ancient times and present conditions.
contacts
t. +39 041 257 1542