Zurich Store Opening

BALENCIAGA ZURICH BAHNHOFSTRAßE

Bahnhofstraße 53

8001 Zurich

Switzerland

On July 15th, 2024, Balenciaga will open a new 367-square meter store in Zurich, its first Swiss flagship. The space, located in the historic Schweizerische Volksbank building, will offer the latest in Balenciaga’s men’s and women’s ready-to-wear, shoe, bag, accessory, eyewear, and jewelry collections, plus exclusives.
The circa 1926 building features a neoclassical façade with a stone base at street level, where new vitrines are seamlessly integrated in the original window openings, preserving the landmark’s prevailing character. The exterior is discreetly marked with a small hanging sign and a decaled window.
A recladding of the space’s existing interior elements follows the brand’s experiential Raw Architecture concept, conceived to question the atmospheres of luxury. Construction is careful to respect and expose the structure’s accumulated histories, inherently resulting in the use of fewer virgin materials—in keeping with Balenciaga’s commitment to sustainable methods.
At the entrance, a dark tiled section appears to hover above the store's luminous rooms, creating a striking visual contrast between a floating cement panel and recessed walls. Weathered concrete, meticulously patinated to replicate the raw and liminal aesthetic of the building's skeletal structure, envelop the periphery of the ground floor. Slender columns that divide the space into three aisles have been stripped bare, enhancing their natural aging and echoing the surrounding textures. Repurposed urban steel sheets from Zurich siteworks uniformly tile the floor. A smoked glass linear staircase, positioned along the store’s central axis between a double row of columns, leads to a cavernous basement lit with an atrium-like halo. A private Balenciaga VIC room flanked with oversized curtains in the House’s signature grey provides dedicated partitions and racks, stuffed couches, focused lighting, and light-framed mirrors make the carpeted area ideal for appointments.