Interplay of stone and fabric

An imposing building dominates the plot of the former freight station in Zurich Aussersihl: the Police and Justice Centre (PJZ). The realisation of this complex project has been 22 years in the planning. The owner of the PJZ building, the Building Department of the Canton of Zurich, launched an invitation to tender for the project in 2006, which was won by the renowned firm of Zurich-based architects, Theo Hotz Partner AG. The architects were finally able to start work in 2017. Special criteria had to be taken into account before finally being able to consolidate the facilities and offices of the Zurich West Prison, cantonal police, police academy, public prosecution, correctional system and the Forensic Institute under one roof. An urban edifice of impressive dimensions was erected over the course of the following five years: 280 metres long, 115 metres wide and 35 metres high. The PJZ is currently home to 2'030 workstations. It is also home to 241 detention units for provisional arrests and pre-trial detentions.

The compact new building towering over the former tracks is impressive, not least due to its unusual shape: Designed as an irregular polygon, it has several facade sides. The large building block is broken up by inner courtyards with views to the open sky. The three green courtyards within the PJZ divide the centre into office wings There are also four small courtyards in the northern wing where the prison cells are housed. Onlookers are immediately struck by the numerous windows populating the facades – predominantly narrow, pitched rectangles interspersed with squares: 3'200 in total above ground. Schenker Storen was commissioned with fitting a shading system to each of them. «The blinds make up half of the facade,» states Daniel Mumenthaler, Major Project Realisation Manager at Schenker Storen. The architects selected the vertical fabric blind VSe ZIP. This is a very fashionable, effective fabric blind, which is particularly suitable for facades exposed to high winds. Their particular advantage: optimum seal down the sides. «Overall, we processed 12'500 m² of fabric,» states Daniel Mumenthaler with regards to this major order.

The vertical fabric blinds are either fully or only somewhat in use, depending on the time of day. On a sunny day, they cover all the openings on the sun-exposed sides of the building, while on other facades they are only lowered in part. On the sides devoid of all sun, they are fully retracted into the soffit of the black metal frames to reveal the window glazing. The varying appearance of the facades visible from Hohlstrasse stems from this combination of fabric blinds and glazing, with the building material itself. The architects chose Vert de Salvan for the facades – a greenish grey natural stone from Valais. The sedimentary rock creates a varied look with its mineral inclusions of all sizes and colour nuances. From afar it looks uniform, but up close, its diversity comes alive. The vertical fabric blinds complement the green hue of the facade covering. They are charcoal in colour – a shade between dark grey and black. The fabric itself is a screen fabric that provides excellent thermal insulation and a clear view to the outside. In addition to the 3'200 vertical fabric blinds, Schenker Storen made 300 reef venetian blinds, type KR 80, for the windows overlooking the seven courtyards. Functionality and aesthetics work in harmony here giving the PJZ its powerful appearance at the heart of Zurich.

The wind-stable vertical fabric blind VSe ZIP is a popular choice for shading systems in public buildings, as well as apartment buildings and single-family homes, because it combines functionality and aesthetics at the highest level. There are 436 fabric designs to choose from for the translucent fabric of this blind variant. The colour Mermet Satiné 5500, COL 3030, Charcoal was used for the fabric blinds of the PJZ. The colour of the powder-coated front-mounted boxes, front, profile guides and colour profiles can be colour-coordinated with the fabric to create a uniform look.