Hoffmann Neopac Thun, CH-Thun
A residential neighborhood, including a nursing home, is set to be built on the grounds of the packaging manufacturer Hoffmann-Neopac in the coming years. As the largest building in this part of the city, the 300-meter-long factory building serves as a focal point within the heterogeneous, disintegrating structures of the city’s outskirts.
While the railroad runs to the west and industrial zones extend to the south, the north and east are characterized by small-scale residential areas that extend all the way to the campground near the lake. The design seeks to harness the site’s history and significance for its future development, treating the existing buildings — in both the first and second phases of the site’s development — as “partners” rather than “opponents” of the development project.
The design therefore integrates all future components (streets, squares, building structures, and civil engineering works) into the site’s coordinate system and leaves some factory buildings standing in the second phase. These fragments serve a practical and atmospheric purpose: on the one hand, they function as noise barriers and a solar power plant; on the other hand, they create points of orientation and identity within the new development by serving as an urban loggia and an industrial garden.
