Location: St. Moritz Year: 2000
On the site of today’s bank building originally stood a farmhouse. This was later converted into a bed and breakfast and then a branch of the Hotel Suisse. The Graubündner Kantonalbank acquired the premises in 1922 and erected a magnificent, strictly symmetrical new building. The present silhouette was established in 1969 with its expansion to six stories. The existing banking hall from 1982 was an introverted space, narrow and rather gloomy. It did not in the least comply with the bank’s current design guidelines, which call for bright, open spaces. Our aim was to create generous spatial and lighting conditions through a targeted intervention and to give back to the building the identity it had lost through the many changes.
The most significant intervention is the large opening created between the ground and first floors along the building’s central axis. Exactly above this opening, a new linear ceiling panel that is illuminated artificially casts soft light on both stories. By adding a narrow surrounding band of cobalt-blue glass, the artist Elisabeth Arpagaus has succeeded in bestowing a precious touch to this element. The newly conceived customers’ hall is now bright and open, and offers the greatest possible transparency throughout the ground floor.
