The senior citizen home „Trotte Zürich“ lies between Käferberg und Limmat with a magnificent view of Lake Zurich and the Alps. The interior design is characterised by a simple and memorable triad of materials. In the public and communal areas, the walls and ceilings have been bush hammered, making the concrete look like roughly hewn stone.

Architects: Enzmann und Fischer Architekten www.enzmannfischer.ch

Images: Annett Landsmann www.landsmann.ch

In the middle of the vineyards of „Girlan“ in South Tirol was built a detached house with a building envelope made of porphyry red coloured fired and bush-hammered concrete.

Architects: Andreas Lengfeld, Arch. Pavol Mikolajcak
Images: Gustav Willeit

Two raw and simple residential buildings are inserted as solitary units in the Wettsteinpark directly behind the city walls of Lucerne. The structures are finely coordinated and the beige concrete symbolises the rock on which the buildings stand. The slightly bent façade is made of limestone concrete, which has been bushhammered and sandblasted.

Masswerk Architekten AG, Luzern www.masswerk.com 

Bildernachweis: Leonardo Finotti São Paulo/Brazil  www.leonardofinotti.com 

The new primary school building is a compact structure with facades oriented on all sides and a flat roof, which fits perfectly into the existing school complex near the historic city centre. The warm beige-yellow colour of the exposed concrete façade with its staggered fair-faced concrete façade conveys a haptic between the plaster buildings and the natural stone walls of the surrounding area. Jurassic limestone from the region was chosen as the aggregate. The window reveals remained unstoreyed and thus imitate the pilaster strips of the plaster facades of the surrounding area.

Architekten:  Kuhlbrodt & Peters Architekten  ARGE mit Beat Aeberhard, Zürich  www.kupe.ch/ 

Bildernachweis: Hoffmann & Müller Landschaftsarchitektur www.hmla.ch

Image 1: Schwäbisch Gmünd Kapelle
Image 2: Köln Blumenberg Kirche
Image 3: BUGA München

During the course of the renovation of the church forecourt in Hesperange, the run-down sacristy was replaced by a new building. The monolithic building was made of poured concrete and the aggregates of local gravel and yellow sand were bush hammered on the surface. In contrast, the edgings of the windows were not worked on and the end result gives the sacristy a highly distinctive look.

The State Museum is an adjunct of the Castle of Schwerin and is characterized by clear geometry and an unassuming style. Its sand coloured jointless concrete walls create a link to the old building. The façade in the lower part is smoothed to a satin finish and above it has been bush hammered.

Architects: Scheidt Kasprusch, Reiner Becker Architekten
Images: Rainer Gollmer

The residential and office building Ex Bar Sabina was built in the historical city centre of Bozen and its shape resembles that of the former buildings. The façade of the cubic building is made of bush hammered exposed concrete mixed with local stones.

Architects: Andreas Lengfeld, Pavol Mikolajcak
Images: René Riller

Architects: Stifter + Bachmann Architekten

Images: René Riller

The concrete walls of St. Catherine’s Church, situated in the Blumenberg district of Cologne, are built of ready-mix concrete accurately cast in situ layer by layer. The colour variations were achieved solely by blending local natural stone aggregates which were then used in combination with Dyckerhoff Weiss cement.
After the concrete was set and struck, the walls were processed by the Miedl Stonemason Company, applying the traditional stonemason’s techniques of pointing, stabbing, bush hammering and charring. The structure of the concrete surface have the same deep structure than banded rocks.

Architects: Architekt Heinz Bienefeld u. Nikolaus Bienefeld
Images: Steinmetzbetrieb Miedl

The high water pump station at Gassnerallee in Mainz rises up as a cube-shaped monolithic building with neither windows nor joints. The exterior walls are made of black pigmented concrete with basalt chippings added as mineral aggregates. The surfaces were bush hammered and the effect appears increasingly more delicate towards the top.

Architects: Schoyerer Architekten, Mainz
Images: Stefan Klomfass

The futuristic community centre in Bad Mondorf has a fully bush hammered façade. The inspiration for the façade design was provided by the ochre coloured rock structure of the surrounding area of Mondorf. The application of exposed concrete resembles in composition, grain size and colouring the natural landscape so that the building appears embedded in its local setting. The craft-like processing and the different concrete phases are conspicuously visible in order to exhibit the natural layers of the rocks. In the ample reception area elements like the concrete walls and ceilings have been bush hammered and polished with diamond abrasives.

Architects: coeba, dave lefévre et associés sàrl Luxemburg
Images: Steve Troes Luxemburg

Architects: Jauch + Stolz Architekten AG, Luzern

The climbing centre can be found on the outskirts of Bruneck and has an irregular singular shape. It is made of exposed concrete with a bright limestone colouration.

Architects: Stifter + Bachmann Architekten
Images: René Riller

The entire building of exposed concrete is located in the new town centre of Poing. It was built with exposed concrete which is yellow-pigmented and is bush hammered overall. As previously mentioned, the bush hammering of concrete is a traditional craft and the result it produces at Poing’s community centre is to create an attractive warm appearance.

Architects: Bez + Kock Architekten BDA, Stuttgart
Images: Steinmetzbetrieb Miedl

The catholic school is located in the west of Regensburg. The fountain made of polished concrete imbues the water with teeming vitality.

Architects: Gierstorfer Köstlbacher Mizcka GKM, Regensburg
Images: Steinmetzbetrieb Miedl

The Josephsburg subway station lies in Berg am Laim, a district of Munich. Integral to the design of this building are the ceiling structures, including the cross bracings and all of this is bush hammered.

Architects: Paul Kramer und Manfred Rossiwal vom städtischen Baureferat,
Hauptabteilung U-Bahnbau
Images: Steinmetzbetrieb Miedl

The base of the ground floor of the media centre in Schladming was in situ cast and bush hammered. The bush hammered surface blends in well with the modern, airy construction of wood and glass.

Architects: Riepl Riepl Architekten, Linz

The trade fair in Riem, a district of Munich, is on the site of the former airport and in 2005, when the Bundesgartenschau (gardening fair) took place, the whole area was redeveloped. A landscaped park, complete with bathing lake, was created and the quay wall was made using bush hammered concrete.

Architect Gilles Vexlard
Images: Steinmetzbetrieb Miedl

This prestigious urban villa, located in the middle of a park in Luxembourg, has been renovated and a new extension added. The predominant construction material on the inside is concrete. The unfaced walls of the foyer, staircase and children’s ‘atelier’ feature a special surface finishing of the exposed concrete. All surfaces were worked on with a bush hammer and the end result is a scattering of bright little pieces of quartz shining throughout. The concrete volumes appear massive and sculptural, as if they had been carved out of one single large volume. After the surfaces were bush hammered, diamond abrasives were used in order to make the surfaces smoother and to prevent crumbling.

Architects: Diane Heirend & Philippe Schmit Architectes Luxemburg
Images: Lukas Roth