Ricola Storage Building
Laufen, Switzerland · 1987
Photo · Photo © Margherita Spiluttini
A powerful precedent for industrial envelope design, showcasing how a monolithic timber storage facility can establish a dramatic material dialogue with a rugged, excavated stone quarry face.
- What we like about this project
- The timber boards step outward as they rise, mimicking the overhang of natural rock strata.
Materials
- timber-cladding
- wood-louvers
- natural-stone
- gravel
Visual identifiers
- stepped-timber-cladding
- quarry-wall
- linear-pathway
- horizontal-louvers
Style tags
- minimalist
- swiss-modernism
- tectonic
Visual tags
- monolithic
- industrial-storage
- site-specific
- material-contrast
- retaining-wall-dialogue
- Geometry
- An extremely long, linear, and tall facade wall runs parallel to a natural rock face, creating a deep, narrow canyon-like pathway. The facade is composed of horizontal, overlapping timber boards that step outward slightly as they rise.
- Facade system
- Stepped horizontal timber rainscreen cladding
- Structural guess
- Concrete core structure with a lightweight timber facade framework
- Spatial scale
- Monolithic industrial scale; the building rises several stories high, dwarfing the narrow pedestrian path.
- Lighting
- Bright, direct daylight from above illuminates the path and the rock face, while casting deep, rhythmic horizontal shadows across the stepped timber facade.
- Atmosphere
- A dramatic, quiet tension between the raw, organic geology and the highly ordered, dark timber architecture.
- Environmental context
- Sited directly against a steep, natural limestone quarry wall with wild vegetation hanging over the edge.
- Spatial experience
- Walking along the narrow gravel path feels highly compressed, sandwiched between the rugged, organic texture of the excavated stone cliff and the precise, repetitive, dark horizontal lines of the massive storage building.
- Composition rhythm
- Strong horizontal lines of the stepped timber boards create a continuous, rhythmic perspective that draws the eye down the path.
- Style reading
- Swiss minimalism with material-focused regionalism
- Program
- Industrial storage facility
- Perspective
- Exterior Facade
- Discipline
- architecture
- Materials
- timber-cladding, wood-louvers, natural-stone, gravel
- Visual identifiers
- stepped-timber-cladding, quarry-wall, linear-pathway, horizontal-louvers
- Style tags
- minimalist, swiss-modernism, tectonic
- Visual tags
- monolithic, industrial-storage, site-specific, material-contrast, retaining-wall-dialogue
- Geometry
- An extremely long, linear, and tall facade wall runs parallel to a natural rock face, creating a deep, narrow canyon-like pathway. The facade is composed of horizontal, overlapping timber boards that step outward slightly as they rise.
- Facade system
- Stepped horizontal timber rainscreen cladding
- Structural guess
- Concrete core structure with a lightweight timber facade framework
- Spatial scale
- Monolithic industrial scale; the building rises several stories high, dwarfing the narrow pedestrian path.
- Lighting
- Bright, direct daylight from above illuminates the path and the rock face, while casting deep, rhythmic horizontal shadows across the stepped timber facade.
- Atmosphere
- A dramatic, quiet tension between the raw, organic geology and the highly ordered, dark timber architecture.
- Environmental context
- Sited directly against a steep, natural limestone quarry wall with wild vegetation hanging over the edge.
- Spatial experience
- Walking along the narrow gravel path feels highly compressed, sandwiched between the rugged, organic texture of the excavated stone cliff and the precise, repetitive, dark horizontal lines of the massive storage building.
- Composition rhythm
- Strong horizontal lines of the stepped timber boards create a continuous, rhythmic perspective that draws the eye down the path.
- Style reading
- Swiss minimalism with material-focused regionalism
- Program
- Industrial storage facility
- Perspective
- Exterior Facade
- Discipline
- architecture