The architects EM2N transformed the former Toni Dairy from the seventies, into a University campus for 5000 students, lecturers, and employees. The industrial character of the building, the raw and direct materialization in the interiors, create one for students and lecturers open framework. The architects played with different degrees of refinement, mostly raw and sometimes also refined or colorful.

EM2N architects affinity for textiles is already visible on the façade. The sculptural building shape is wrapped in a wavy mesh. The metal mesh looks like a transparent curtain and the building is reduced to its cubature.

Annette Douglas convinced the jury with her textile concept and was commissioned with the design, development, planning, budgeting, and overviewing of the production. Over 350 rooms were planned with curtains, and more than 20'000 sqm of curtain fabric were produced. All curtains meet high functional requirements, including sound absorption and fire protection. 

«Mono-Toni» and «Multi-Toni» are colorful, dense sound-absorbing acoustic curtains, a development for the music practice rooms, music classrooms, and lecture halls mounted in 230 rooms. The design is inspired by the music, beat, and rhythm of the forte and piano. Annette Douglas composed «Multi-Toni» as multi-colored stripes, while «Mono-Toni» would be plain, using the same construction. The concept allows the rhythm of each room differently by combining the plain look of «Mono-Toni» and the colourful stripe of «Multi-Toni».

_{EM2N Architects Zurich
Applied Acoustics Sissach
Wichser Acoustics Zurich
Building Department Zurich}