Work begins on the first building in Lokstadt, Winterthur
Dietlikon, 13 July 2018 – Making more space for living, working and leisure: accompanied by Christa Meier, City Councillor and Head of the Construction Department, as well as representatives of the investors – investment fund Adimora and the two housing cooperatives gaiwo and Gesewo – Implenia laid the foundation stone for the first building in Lokstadt on Thursday. With its mix of different rental and owner-occupied apartments, “Haus Krokodil” sets the tone of diversity that applies not only to the building’s occupants, but to the Lokstadt development as a whole. Implenia has pre-sold the approximately 60 owner-occupied apartments in record time, while a large proportion of the 200 rental units it is building have been taken by the two cooperatives.
The laying of the foundation stone marks the point at which the vision starts to become reality. “Today’s the day that Lokstadt begins to emerge piece by piece as a new district within Winterthur. It will provide new town-centre housing, workplaces and leisure spaces – good news for everyone in Winterthur,” said Councillor Christa Meier. Krokodil’s future residents will start moving in as early as 2020, bringing even more life to the new district. “This is the site where the SLM locomotive and engine factory once wrote railway history with the ‘Krokodil’, the first electric locomotive on the Gotthard line; and now Lokstadt is where we are writing an important chapter in the story of sustainability,” said Adrian Wyss, Head of Business Unit Modernisation & Development at Implenia, in his address. The environmentally friendly, timber-built Haus Krokodil, is leading Lokstadt towards the 2000-Watt Society status. From the ground floor up, it is made largely of wood and wooden structures. By using this naturally renewable building material, Implenia is reducing the amount of grey energy and greenhouse gas emissions compared with conventional bricks and mortar construction. Wood also creates a very pleasant environment in which to live. Haus Krokodil is located directly on the central “Dialogplatz” plaza, which is planted with around 150 trees.
Meanwhile, the museum schaffen in Lokstadt enabled around 50 kindergarten and school children from Tössfeld to get involved with the laying of the foundation stone. The children have been learning about the building work at Lokstadt since summer 2017 as part of the “Raum schaffen” project. Guided by Implenia’s construction experts, they were able to use a hammer and chisel to take down a wall. The chunks they broke off were put in a “time capsule” last week, which the children symbolically buried on the site.
More information: www.lokstadt.ch and www.lokstadt.ch/de-ch/wohnen/krokodil/uebersicht.html
Information about our project partners:
www.pensimo.ch/de/adimora/index.html, www.gaiwo.ch, www.gaiwo-werkgasse.ch, www.gesewo.ch and www.einviertel-gesewo.ch
Contact for media:
Natascha Mathyl
Communications Manager
Tel.: +41 58 474 74 77
Things are really happening now at Lokstadt: representatives of the organisations involved in the Krokodil project lay the foundation stone. From left to right: Ulf Hoppenstedt, Implenia’s overall Project Manager for Lokstadt; Benjamin Zemann, Director of Gesewo; Ivo Ramer, Chair of the EinViertel housing association; City Councillor Christa Meier; Adrian Wyss, Head of Business Unit Modernisation & Development at Implenia; Peter Baumberger of Baumberger & Stegmeier Architekten; Bruno Fritschi, Mandate Manager at the Adimora investment fund; Stephan Popp of KilgaPopp Architekten; and Marco Oss, Chair of gaiwo. (Image: Implenia)
Krokodil leads the way at Lokstadt. Future residents of the timber building on the central “Dialogplatz” plaza will be the first to live in Lokstadt. (Image: Implenia)
Around 50 children from Tössfeld celebrated the laying of the foundation stone in their own way last week. As part of the “Raum schaffen” project run by the museum schaffen, the girls and boys buried stones from the wall they had helped knock down at Lokstadt back in summer 2017. Implenia supports the project and the museum schaffen as part of a cooperation. (Image: Implenia)
Implenia is Switzerland’s leading construction and construction services company. It also has strong positions in the German, Austrian and Scandinavian infrastructure markets. Established in 2006, Implenia can look back on around 150 years of construction tradition. It brings the expertise of its highly skilled construction units together under the roof of a company active throughout Europe. With its integrated business model and specialists operating in all areas of construction, the Group can manage a building project through its entire lifecycle and deliver work that is economical, integrated and customer-centric. The focus is on striking a sustainable balance between financial success and social and environmental responsibility.
Implenia, with its headquarters in Dietlikon near Zurich, employs around 10,000 people throughout Europe and posted revenue of around CHF 3.9 billion in 2017. The company is listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange (IMPN, CH0023868554). More information can be found at www.implenia.com.
