Hall 4 at Switzerland Innovation Park Zurich

By Damiano Di Mele - 13 December 2024

The hangar structure was added to the history of architecture in the early 20^th century. Designed to house and shield airplanes and airships, the hangar has a significant etymology, the term deriving from the Frankish word haimgard, meaning “an enclosure annexed to the house”, hence a secluded, protected space within the confines of everyday domestic life.

Today, the term no longer holds its original meaning and signifies a very specific function. However, while once built exclusively to house aircraft, the hangar is now being transformed into places where everyday life is carried on, and so, making it a proponent of its own social requalification, contributing to the revitalization of the surrounding area.

Returning to the origins of the hangar, French engineer Eugène Freyssinet – a highly regarded and influential figure in the years straddling the 19^thand 20^th centuries – played a key role in the development of the hangar. In the 1920s, the twin hangars he built for airships at Orly in Paris experimented with new construction models that took the magic of prestressed reinforced concrete to new heights. The structure comprised huge parabolic arches some 300 m-long and 60 m-high.

Closer to home, Italian engineering – famous throughout the world – enjoys a distinctive characteristic: its strong humanist component. Italian engineers are full of admiration for the great monuments of the past – classical domes and Gothic cathedrals – but also for the figurative arts. An excellent example of this kind of engineer is Pier Luigi Nervi, who in the 1930s built two aircraft hangars for the military airport at Orvieto. Both exemplify this weave of art and technology.

The hangar architecture designed by these nationally or internationally well-known figures is the backdrop against which Max Dudler designed his project for the Switzerland...