55. Construction near the Windisch FHNW

A new bus terminal will show up here eventually.

33. The stone parquet at Sechseläutenplatz

In yesterday's post I mentioned the stone parquet that was being laid in the plaza in front of the opera house. I should say that while I've been calling it the plaza in front of the opera house, it is probably more correct to say that the opera is located on the plaza, as it is a large space and many buildings front onto it. It's actually a very well used space, and in the past it was occupied by some event or the other for 8 months out of the year.

Here is a photo showing the stone pieces that make up the parquet. The stone is quartzite from Vals, in canton Graubünden. If I understand it correctly, it took a year to quarry the stone for the 16 000 square meter area. I know that a lot of thought went into this choice, I just hope the material can stand the heavy use that the area gets.

32. Zurich opera house

Just after I wrote my post yesterday, I found a story about the Sechseläutenplatz in my RSS feed -- a story I cannot find anymore (*#^!). Turns out that the plaza will be inaugurated in April.

Here is a photo from 05-2013, looking towards the Zurich opera house, while the stone parquet was being laid. I'm looking forward to making a trip out there soon, to see what things look like at the moment.

<http://www.nzz.ch/aktuell/zuerich/uebersicht/fragen-zum-neuen-sechselaeutenplatz-endspurt-fuer-den-neuen-zuercher-stadtplatz-1.18122075>

31. WC at the opera

Okay, I took some liberties with the title in an attempt to make it more sensational. It being Friday, my self-appointed language-themed day, I give you "WC", pronounced vay-say. Indeed, it is a "water closet", i.e. loo, but how or why it is so widespread in German, I don't know.

The area in front of the Zurich opera house, the Sechseläutenplatz, has been under construction since I moved to Switzerland, and only now is the final form becoming apparent. This striking pavilion is one of two located on the plaza, and serves as conduits to the underground parking lot. Which is just as good-looking as you would imagine from this structure.

Some links (content in German):

<https://www.stadt-zuerich.ch/ted/de/index/taz/bauen/sechselaeutenplatz.secure.html>
<http://www.hochparterre.ch/nachrichten/architektur/blog/post/detail/fin-de-chantier-der-anfang-ist-gemacht/1346924510/>
<http://www.detail.de/architektur/news/kontakt-nach-oben-parkhaus-von-zach-zuend-architekten-021771.html>

Two cats on a crane

Caught these fellows hanging out on a crane pedestal over the weekend.

20100405

Open house at the hydroelectric power dams

Yesterday there was an Open House program at several of the hydroelectricity dams around Switzerland. I actually missed it because I didn't learn about it until it was over. So, instead I'm showing a photo I took way back in 2006 at the Grand Dixence in Valais. The composition is not great, but perhaps you can get some idea of the scale with the tops of the cars and people in the foreground. It is rather frightening to think about what's behind the wall. Situated at 2300 meters above sea level the dam is 285 meters high. It is (apparently) the world's tallest concrete gravity dam.

Some 56% of Swiss domestic electrical power is covered by hydroelectricity. That's 38 billion kWh.

More information at swissinfo here:
Concrete giants open up to the public.
Or, at the website of the Open House program (not in English):
Schweizer Wasserkraft

20060712 Canon Powershot S410

It's forbiddden to stop in the range of action

Warnings in four languages. And the ubiquitous — and hence useless — application of the word "Swiss". The usage does not appear to be legally protected (or there is no enforcement), and after a couple of disappointing experiences, I'm now more likely to avoid products with such labels.

20080701

Blue sky, yellow crane

I'm posting this as a contrast to yesterday's post. The right light can make the most mundane thing interesting.

20090215

Flavors of cement

The limestone and chunks of clay that are extracted from the quarry seen in the previous two posts are transported to the cement factory in Würenlingen via a 3.8 km (2.4 mile) long conveyor belt (part of which can be seen in this old post) that crosses over Villigen and the river Aare.

There, they are ground into a fine powder and together with some additives such as iron pyrite and bauxite the powder is shoved into a rotary furnace (1450 °C) where it is converted to cement clinker (Wiki). The first time I heard that word it was spoken by an Australian and I will forever carry that sound in my head.

The clinker is cooled in a heat exchanger (and the energy is actually used to heat the plant and about 100 households in the neighborhood) and then ground together with gypsum to form cement.

About 90% of the output of this plant is transported to building sites in cement trucks such as the one seen in the silo tower in the photo. The names on the labels, Normo, Fluvio and Fortico are that of different mixes of cement that Holcim produces.

20080920

Baustelle II

A public works construction site. This one in Baden.

I spent some time observing the goings-on while enjoying my Kaffee und Kuchen (coffee and cake) at the third-floor (US metric <- that's a curious combination) restaurant in the department store Manor. A bit vertiginous up there. This photo in an old post of mine shows the general area: the construction is going on to the right of that shot.

20080716

Baustelle

Construction site.

Quite a bit of house building activity has been going on in Switzerland recently. Cranes such as this one can be seen in almost every locality.

20080629