Loktown Elefant

About the project

Elefant pairs industrial heritage with state-of-the-art timber engineering in Winterthur's Lokstadt, a certified 2000-watt district on the former Sulzer locomotive works. A listed historic hall fronts a seven-storey new office building conceived as 'stacked halls' in wood.

Columns and beams of beech laminated veneer lumber — one of the strongest engineered timbers available — carry timber-concrete composite floors; the prefabricated structure was erected in around five months. The Minergie-certified building was fully let to health insurer SWICA before completion.

Finished in 2024, Elefant demonstrates that large-scale office space on industrial brownfield can be a carbon store, its climate performance certified under the Rainbow Standard.