Oskar Walz was a Swiss contemporary of Le Corbusier sharing the great modernist’s interest in technology and concrete, but lacking the flair for urban culture. Traveling to the United States, he was fascinated by a parking garage, and back home, he decided to implement the idea in a privileged neighborhood. Alas, his efforts went without profit. Walz later founded a travel grant to the United States to make students understand his mindset. Later, in 1950, he built a men’s clothing factory for a Jewish merchant.
When I first entered the roof, I noticed that any sort of vertical pillars were missing; instead, ingenious free-spanning concrete beams lay hidden behind plaster claddings. I had found a unique but invisible technical experiment. I decided to remove wood and plaster, and free the concrete. By installing a roof with a steeper pitch over the existing concrete and using clerestory windows and a central atrium stairwell, I created a space suffused by sunlight. I’m told by the first tenant that the space is like a sun-clock, telling minutes, hour, and season. “Art never changes,” he told me, “but your space stays alive, capturing my fascination as the changing daylight fills the interior with new life again and again.”
Architecture: Dan C. Baciu for B-C-Arch, 2011-2013.
Text and images: Dan C. Baciu ©