IN SHORT
As part of an effort to centralize the University's Law School's facilities, which were dispersed throughout eight different buildings, the Canton of Zurich and the University commissioned Calatrava to prepare a study for an addition of two storeys to a landmarked building's wings and raise the building structure to its original height and to house its administration offices and classrooms. Calatrava's proposal expanded the original project scope and provides a new facility for the law school's distinguished library and rare books collection within the landmarked building.
The original L-shaped building structure was designed in 1908 and the two wings, which did not reach the height of the original structure, were create as a central courtyard in 1930. Instead of obliterating the courtyard under several floor slabs, Calatrava proposed an 'densification' approach to redefine the courtyard as an atrium by creating a supplemental structure within the original volume. Calatrava devised an hydraulically movable pleated curtain of collapsible blades to provide the reading rooms with controlled natural light from the ceiling, which also function as acoustic tiles.