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Project: Freitag flagship store, Zurich/ Switzerland
Best of Category "Shops/Showrooms/Exhibition stands"
The Freitag flagship store in Zürich is both a model of corporate architecture - and a highly unconventional example of it. The locality - something of an urban wasteland - is given an identity by this local landmark, and a viewing platform provides a welcome public and social amenity. Constructed from used freight containers, the architecture is an indirect allusion to the company's core product line: bags made from used truck tarpaulins. Utilitarian industrial objects are here made to serve a new purpose, and thereby given a whole new lease of life. This quasi-logical transformation of ready-mades into architecture is carried through into the detailed execution, which relies as far as possible on fasteners that are used as standard in the container industry.
The jury's verdict:
"The flagship store is an example of creative collaboration between client and architect that we have not seen in the corporate architecture of recent years. Other strengths of this project noted by the jury are the absence of the architect's personal signature, a bold use of constructional techniques and an honest rawness in the detail."
