High Rise Building Strategy, City of Zug

The new urban space concept of the city of Zug forms the basis for the high-rise building concept. High-rise buildings are considered both as a strategic tool for densification and as landmarks and architectural objects. For this reason, the high-rise concept addresses different scales. At the broader level, it focuses on strengthening and deliberately densifying centrally located, strategic areas. This concerns the development corridor along the Zurich-Lucerne railway line and the main road network. These are the urban neighborhoods on the plain.

At the urban space level, high-rise and tall buildings are always located directly adjacent to heavily frequented traffic areas within these urban neighborhoods. In this way, the high-rises contribute to the activation and attractiveness of streets and intersections; they are also well connected and form part of the overarching open space structure.

A special urban spatial element is the high-rise boulevard on Baarerstrasse. Here, a distinctive place is created through a strong linear concentration of high-rise buildings. Finally, at the building scale, important architectural and construction principles apply. The high-rises should relate to the eaves line of the street spaces, so they emerge naturally from the urban ensemble. The ground floor is designed with a high ceiling and openness, featuring public uses, and the main entrance is located directly at the forecourt.