B2 Boutique Hotel By Althammer Hochuli Architekten

The B2 Boutique Hotel + Spa, Designed by Zurich-based studio Althammer Hochuli Architekten, opened its doors in 2011 in one of Zurich’s most remarkable industrial heritage sites, the former brewery Hürlimann.

The hotel features 60 bedrooms and suites, two boardrooms, a fantastic Library Lounge, and provides direct access to Zurich’s latest thermal baths.

B2 Boutique Hotel By Althammer Hochuli Architekten:

“During its 130-year-long and eventful history, the site has been modified and converted multiple times. The hotel’s concept and design follow the spatial and structural parameters of the complex stock of buildings. Accordingly, the conversion concept embeds three distinct scenarios: rebuilding (the boiling house), building up (on top of the turbine hall), and incorporating (into the cooling sector).

Rebuild

The boiling house is located on Sihlberg Hill in the city and was part of the former brewery. Today, the hotel foyer features cathedral-style windows once part of the boiling house, drawing visitors into the library.

The space is inviting, with 33,000 books on a wall lined with smoked oak and three-bottle chandeliers. Three high windowed recesses on the shelves show the first-floor boardroom. The guest rooms are accessed through an open foyer with a sculptured body of fair-face concrete as the spatial center and reference.

The construction’s windows offer a view of a light sculpture that connects the first floor to the roof. The sculpture leads to a boardroom with an angular conference table and a red velvet textile wall. The rooms are arranged in line with the existing windows on the facade.

While further pursuing this idea, the rooms are individual in cut, proportion, and atmosphere. They commonly use a bathroom cubicle, which enlarges the living space through partial vitrification. The bathroom cubicle’s modern shape contrasts with its traditional materials, such as the canvas textile tapestry or the quality floorboards of oiled oak. Together with vintage objects, they remind us of the old brewery’s golden age.

Build Up

The listed turbine hall – unique in Zurich – and its conserved dignified machinery are witnesses of a proud history in beer brewing. The light enters the turbine hall via two old skylights. Within the modern, slightly raised build-up of the hall, they form simultaneously the center of two courtyards encircled by the hotel’s corridors.

Visitors who follow the hotel corridors are granted surprising views into the two yards covered with shards of green bottles. The bottles’ color complements the color of the striking red carpet runners, modeled from historic photographs.

The rooms in the build-up are marked by their large windows framed in expressive oak cases. Mighty outdoor sliding shutters allow for determining views and shading, in brief, generating atmosphere through the varied incidences of light. The build-up distinguishes itself from the turbine hall through this materiality, but with its characteristic iron slats, it also sets a reference to the neighboring cooling hall.

Incorporate

An imposing overbuilt construction bridges the boiling house and its adjacent building, the cooling hall. In the brewing process, the cooling hall served as a place to chill the wort after boiling it. This fantastic hall perfused by winds is where the hotel realizes the concept of ‘house-in-house.’

Eight large suites form two long “terraced houses” utterly detached from the existing husk. The suites’ concise architectural interventions still enable one to experience the hall with its bold steel structure fully. The interior design of the suites also reflects the “house-in-house” theme. A compact body encompassing a suite’s functions characterizes the open spatial structure.

The homogenous materialization in oak supports the construction’s visual detachment from its husk. The living space widens, utilizing the space between the apartment and the facade of the cooling hall. Guests can enjoy a panoramic view of the city from outside and inside. The guiding principle of creating from the wealth of existing industrial heritage makes the hotel’s ambiance both a unique and authentic experience.

Swim in Aqui mineral water on the hotel’s roof. The hotel is also home to the Thermalbad & Spa Zurich, which opened in December 2010 and provides 3,300m² of relaxation space in the brewery’s former barrel filling area. The B2 Boutique Hotel + Spa guests can enjoy special deals and direct access via the roof pool.

Guests can move freely in the thermal bath and spa area and do not need any cash to hand, as admission, treatments, and food and drinks are all charged directly to their room. This is a unique facility in an urban hotel. It offers stressed business travelers a welcome range of opportunities to unwind and makes the weekend packages even more attractive.

Photos by: Hannes Henz

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