Forge Zürich

The vaults were cleaned, repointed, and lit — and from that single decision, everything else followed. When the structure is this strong, the designer's job is not to compete with it but to place things inside it honestly. The fire goes at the centre because that's where the heat and the theatre belong. The bar goes into the deepest arch because that's where you want to drink. The rooftop gets a pavilion because the view from up there — chimneys, hills, Zürich below — earns a room of its own. There's a particular pleasure in a space that feels inevitable — where you can't quite imagine it having been designed differently. That's what Forge became. Not a concept imposed on a building, but a building that was finally listened to.