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Awesome Street Furniture in This Swiss Roadside Public Toilet Renovation
Merya, by architecture/engineering firm Baraki
Designing gas station bathrooms might seem beneath the average Swiss architect. But "We want to be free to build what people really need," Jeanne Wéry told HochParterre, "and not sink under the pressure of architecture as a financial business. We want to flirt with the boundaries of discipline."
Wéry is co-founder of Lausanne-based architecture and engineering firm Baraki. The firm beautifully renovated this toilet facility behind a gas station at Merya, a rest area in Gruyère along Switzerland's A1 highway:
Image: Matthieu Croizier
Image: Matthieu Croizier
Inexpensive street furniture, by design-build firm Work Matter, was created for the waiting area. "We have imagined a composition of urban furniture by reusing construction elements from the world and language of the road," writes Work-Matter. Concrete guardrails were repurposed as benches and tables by adding steel elements. A coatrack was made from what look to have been handrails.
Image: Work Matter
Image: Matthieu Croizier
Image: Matthieu Croizier
Image: Matthieu Croizier
Image: Matthieu Croizier
The toilet stalls were redone in stainless steel and made to open directly to the outside. (In the previous incarnation of the building, motorists had to enter the building to access the toilets.) Maintenance workers can hose the stalls out directly.
Image: Matthieu Croizier
Image: Matthieu Croizier
The mirrored surfaces reflect the beauty of Lake Gruyère. "Before, it was a dark and shady place," Baraki engineer Marc Vertesi says of the original building. "We wanted to make it bright and transparent – ??like an oasis in the asphalt desert."
Image: Matthieu Croizier
Image: Matthieu Croizier
Image: Matthieu Croizier
Note: These photographs were taken before dark-colored bird safety dots, which double as signage, were added to the mirrors. This decision was made after a bird was injured during construction.
"In this mirror, a new scenography emerges," writes the firm. "The lake, Gruyère, and the pre-Alps take back a central place in the project."
Image: Matthieu Croizier
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Comments
I hope the bench fabrication takes into consideration the emissivity of the steel surface. If it is low and exposed to strong sun light, the bench can get uncomfortably or dangerously hot.
That's a fair point, but Gruyeres sees an annual average high of 72°F so I think they'll be in the clear
Fancy looking ass-torch on a sunny day.
I don't think 'awesome' is the right term here, this is certainly different. Infrastructure in Switzerland is really 'built' -Skookum, and quite often done with flair, tastefully so in most cases.