A Chocolate Showcase Incorporating Production, Research and Entertainment
Lindt & Sprüngli, the Swiss chocolatier, has been based on a site overlooking Lake Zurich since 1899. The latest addition to its campus is the Lindt Home of Chocolate, designed by Basel-based architects Christ & Gatenbeim. Besides a railway line on its west side, the 21,540m2 building echoes the logic, history, and urban structure of the eclectic mix of buildings in the Lindt campus. The Home of Chocolate is an industrial box that is in dialogue with the surrounding factory buildings. The facade is primarily of red brick, reinterpreting its functional neighbors, and laid with red mortar to give the impression of a uniform color field. But the showcase facade is at the south-eastern corner, fronting a curved indent cut into the otherwise simple rectangular volume. This facade rises above and steps forward from the adjacent red brick facades and is clad with white, glazed brick adorned with a strip of golden letters naming the building. Below it is a horizontal glazed strip, through which the building is entered from a new public plaza.
The building’s multifunctional space incorporates an auditorium, spaces which host an interactive exhibition about chocolate, production facilities, a research and development facility, offices, meeting rooms, a lounge, a “chocolateria” where visitors can make chocolate themselves, a shop, and a café.
The heart of the building is an atrium with three levels, 64m long, 13m wide and 15m high. Along with the load-bearing outer concrete shell, a robust structure is created by circular columns rising at the atrium’s long sides. The columns reveal a building full of movement. Wide stairs spiral up around columns, balconies cantilever around them and walkways form bridges between them. Hollow columns carry elevators and pipes. Natural light is channeled by large tubular openings rising to skylights. In the center is a dramatic, 9m-high golden chocolate fountain, developed by Atelier Brückner, also authors of the exhibition.
The white interior contrasts with the red brick exterior, and its spatial connectivity and curved interior elements contrast with the solid orthogonal architectural form, which is built to last while offering future flexibility. The Lindt Home of Chocolate is a hybrid combining public attractions with production and research. Architect Emanuel Christ describes the design as “almost reaching an ancient Roman scale’’, and it bridges “the substantial gap between a commercial ambiance and classical grandeur.”
Project: The multifunctional lindt home of chocolate / Location: Kilchberg, Switzerland / Architect(s): CHRIST & GANTENBEIN ARCHITECTS / Project leaders: Anna Flückiger, Astrid Kühn, Tabea Lachenmann / Project team: Javier Bressel, Ana Sofia Costa Guerra, Eileen Davis, Szabolcs Egyed, Florian Kaiser, Kyrill Keller, Daan Koch, Andrew Mackintosh, Stephanie Müller, Catia Polido, Robert Schiemann, Anne Katharina Schulze, Guido Tesio, Leandro Villalba, Jean Wagner, Leonie Welling, Christina Wendler / Founding partners: Emanuel Christ, Christoph Gantenbein / Partner: Mona Farag / Use: culture, laboratory, museum, office, retail / Gross floor area: 21,540m² / Lenght: 93 m / Width: 45 m / Height: 21 m / Design: 2014 / Completion: 2020 / Photograph: Walter Mair
