Conversion of the Neue Börse, Zurich
completed
EF Education First AG

Renovation and conversion
Direct commission
Conversion of the former stock exchange into the headquarters of a global language school.
Planning 2016-2017 / Construction 2017-2018

With its ring-shaped entrance façade, the stock exchange building embodies the spirit of its original purpose perhaps more than any building in Zurich’s city centre. Yet owing to digitalisation, the trading floor was only briefly in operation. After several restructurings, SIX Swiss Exchange ultimately left the iconic building. The new tenant is the language school EF Education First, which employs some 800 staff in Zurich. The conversion focused on the building structure. The heart of the service building is the two-storey, roughly fifty-metre long atrium that will replace the trading floor as the gravitational centre of the structure. The exposed coffered ceiling and two new, striking spiral staircases lend the hall-like space its unique character.