Raiffeisen Schaffhausen

Schaffhausen, Switzerland

Banks

Architects: Nau2

Location: Bahnhofstrasse, Schaffhausen, Switzerland
Year: 2013

The new ground floor of the Raiffeisen Schaffhausen is conceived as a spacious, open meeting place. The flowing bank interior extends into the full depth of the original medieval plot, with the customer area stretching from Bahnhofstrasse through to the inner courtyard. This allows for good natural lighting, straightforward orientation for the customer and clear organization of the bank’s internal processes. Using a contemporary architectural language, the elongated plan is structured as a spatial sequence, with increasing discretion towards the rear.

For the design of the bank interior space, the project draws on the tradition of painted façades in the historic center of Schaffhausen, which characterize the city’s public realm. Together with ROK, Rippmann Oesterle & Knauss, these colorful murals were digitally transformed for the interior of the bank into a pattern of rhomboid glass shingles, establishing both a reference to the Raiffeisen brand’s original honeycomb logo and anchoring it with the local history. The project creates a subtly composed space of encounter, which piques the interest of passers-by through color, lighting and reflections, and provides customers with a welcoming, stimulating atmosphere. The traditional features of Schaffhausen’s public façades are transported into the interior, and in return, the bank uses transparency to open itself to the city.