Bischoff Textil
Most of St.Gallen’s textile industry buildings were built in the time of the “Stickereiblüte”, during the boom of St.Gallen’s embroidery industry (from the late 1860s to the beginning of the First World War). Not so the company seat of Bischoff Textil AG. The business was founded after this boom, in 1927, at a time when premiums were offered for decommissioning existing embroidery machines.
History:
The brave anticyclical business strategy paid off, and Bischoff is still renowned on the world market for embroidery used in high quality lingerie and ladieswear. The founding fathers proved their pioneering spirit in architecture, too. As the first high rise building in St.Gallen, the 1957 construction is a symbol of urbanisation, denser city planning and technical innovation.
Architecture:
The building site’s shape of up to 135m in length and a minimum width of 22.5m, together with the demands of both an embroidery business and the administrative centre of a growing business proved an architectural challenge. The architect Albert Bayer’s solution is made up of a nine story house with an additional loft and an attached shed with an unsupported steel beam construction for housing the embroidery machines. In a masterly combination of aesthetics and function, its shed-sped structure catches daylight both from above and at a right angle to the side walls. Thanks to the u-shaped window hinges, the work rooms are consistently bright, despite the high building density on the neighbouring plots. Talking its design from classical modernism, the high rise’s elongated form, marked window fronts and relegated roof make it striking. At the time, the building depth of 13 meters was bridged with the pioneering use of prestressed concrete. In 2016, almost six decades after its construction, the house underwent careful renovation, during which definitive building elements like the division of the windows through mullions were restored. At the same time, the building’s energy system was renovated.
Present-day use:
The building is still home to the company seat of Bischoff Textil AG today. Net to management and the development and design department, it also holds the largest private embroidery archive in Switzerland. It serves as inspiration for the company designers, as well as the couturiers of international fashion houses. As production now takes place in Diepoldsau in the Rhine Valley, as well as they company’s factories abroad, the machine halls are rented out to other companies. The factory shop on Burgstrasse is a treasure trove for high-end embroidery.
The brave anticyclical business strategy paid off, and Bischoff is still renowned on the world market for embroidery used in high quality lingerie and ladieswear. The founding fathers proved their pioneering spirit in architecture, too. As the first high rise building in St.Gallen, the 1957 construction is a symbol of urbanisation, denser city planning and technical innovation.
Architecture:
The building site’s shape of up to 135m in length and a minimum width of 22.5m, together with the demands of both an embroidery business and the administrative centre of a growing business proved an architectural challenge. The architect Albert Bayer’s solution is made up of a nine story house with an additional loft and an attached shed with an unsupported steel beam construction for housing the embroidery machines. In a masterly combination of aesthetics and function, its shed-sped structure catches daylight both from above and at a right angle to the side walls. Thanks to the u-shaped window hinges, the work rooms are consistently bright, despite the high building density on the neighbouring plots. Talking its design from classical modernism, the high rise’s elongated form, marked window fronts and relegated roof make it striking. At the time, the building depth of 13 meters was bridged with the pioneering use of prestressed concrete. In 2016, almost six decades after its construction, the house underwent careful renovation, during which definitive building elements like the division of the windows through mullions were restored. At the same time, the building’s energy system was renovated.
Present-day use:
The building is still home to the company seat of Bischoff Textil AG today. Net to management and the development and design department, it also holds the largest private embroidery archive in Switzerland. It serves as inspiration for the company designers, as well as the couturiers of international fashion houses. As production now takes place in Diepoldsau in the Rhine Valley, as well as they company’s factories abroad, the machine halls are rented out to other companies. The factory shop on Burgstrasse is a treasure trove for high-end embroidery.