GEZE door systems: A fresh interior for a Zurich landmark
Zürich's main post office, the Sihlpost, is considered an historical landmark in the city. GEZE was involved in the complete and sympathetic renovation of this listed building by providing multifunctional door systems and emergency exit doors to support safe and comfortable use of the building.
Automatic sliding doors in emergency exit design
The side façades also offer emergency exit doors with barrier-free ease of access. © Lorenz Frey / GEZE GmbH
Built in the ‘New Building’ (Neues Bauen) style, the 123-metre long square building, with its clock tower visible from afar, was the most modern post office in the world when it was completed in 1930. The Swiss Federal Railway (SBB), which owns the building, has invested 45 million francs in comprehensive renovation of the Sihlpost. The listed building was upgraded to the latest standards and its interior fully renovated under the direction of Max Dudler Architekten AG. Today, the Sihlpost building offers a fresh exterior façade and serves not only as a post office building, but also as a modern urban centre for retail, restaurants, education, and business.
The three large eye-catching glass portals on the impressive building front serve as entrances to the main hall, and to the separate locker area. The double leaf automatic sliding doors, at roughly 300 cm tall and 320 cm wide, offer generous and barrier-free ease of access.
Fine-framed and visually discreet, the heavy door leaves move powerfully and quietly. The GEZE Slimdrive SL FR drive systems for escape and rescue route doors ensure safe escape routes in the event of danger.
Automatic door systems with intelligent control technology
Maximum door opening with limited space: quadruple-leaf automatic telescopic door. © Lorenz Frey / GEZE GmbH
Intelligent control technology is concealed inside the reliable Slimdrive drive units, which are just 7 cm tall. The doors’ hold-open time adapts automatically to the frequency of use. All motion parameters, such as acceleration, hold-open time and opening and closing speeds can be set individually.
Offering a forward-thinking design, Slimdrive door systems can also be integrated into the building management system so that door functions can be monitored or adapted from a central location.
A telescopic door for maximum opening widths
The automatic sliding door in the entrance area to the Piu serves as an emergency exit door. © Lorenz Frey / GEZE GmbH
The new design means that more people use the Sihlpost building than ever before. During the renovation, direct access was created to the KV Zürich Business School building through the newly renamed Sihlpostgasse (Sihlpost Street).
GEZE installed a quadruple-leaf automatic telescopic door with specially designed Slimdrive SLT drive systems in an escape route version in the limited space of the building opening. It can reach a maximum opening width of 250 cm if necessary, allowing the door leaf to be ‘parked’ open with ease. Fanlights above the telescopic door allow for optimal use of daylight.
Emergency exit doors: Safety and efficiency in the service sector
Emergency exit for ‘easy access’ in the event of a fire. © Lorenz Frey / GEZE GmbH
Builders put their faith in the proven quality of GEZE fire protection and fire closer doors in the building's restaurant areas too. Fully automatic sliding doors with fire resistance class EI30 create a safe barrier against fire, smoke, and heat in the basement of the traditional vegetarian restaurant Hiltl .
A powerful GEZE Powerdrive PL drive moves the large and heavy metal sliding doors to the food storage area. A double leaf metal sliding door with viewing panes in the passage between the kitchen and service area handles the constant movement of staff in and out quickly, quietly, and with barrier-free access - thanks to the Slimdrive SL NT drive. Both door systems are fire protection doors and close automatically in the event of a fire, even if they were previously automatically held open. The fire protection closer is also secured in the event of a power failure, since the door systems close using pre-stored energy.
The metal sliding doors
Powerful, safe, and quiet: single leaf metal sliding door with fire barrier function. © Lorenz Frey / GEZE GmbH
Automatic metal sliding door with viewing windows. © Lorenz Frey / GEZE GmbH
GEZE products in the Sihlpost Zurich
- GEZE Slimdrive SL-FR drive systems
- Automatic telescopic doors
- Slimdrive SLT drive systems
- GEZE Powerdrive PL drive
