Requirements and Challenges

• The motto for the project is «restoring its former glory», while the aim is to instal cutting-edge technology in the building and at the same time rest oring it to its original form as much as possible.
• Many visitors will be pleased that the green domes that are visible from far off will be staying. Over time the copper sheets have taken on the typical green patina of age. The Swiss Na-tional Heritage Organisation and the Confederation have decided to have the new copper sheets «pre-aged» so that the result will not be a patchwork of green and copper-red.
  The 100,000 people who visit the federal parliament building every year have not been for-gotten in the renovation work: a proper entrance will be built providing direct access from the terrace in front of the building up into the hall beneath the main dome. Furthermore, the en-trance hall, which until now was rather dingy, will be reconverted to its original form as an atrium naturally lit from above.
• The renovation work will provide the urgently needed extra space for members of parliament and fractions as well as for the staff of the parliamentary services. More working space will be created.
• New meeting rooms with cutting-edge equipment for conferences and presentations, state-of-the-art infrastructure for services and utilities and reduction of running costs, in particular en-ergy, and maintenance work.
• Complete renovation of exterior and interior, sandstone façades, window ledges and sculp-tures, flat and sloping roofs and domes, skylights, services, electricity system and toilets, networks, lighting, repair of cracks, flooring.
• New restaurant facilities with cafeteria in the Galerie des Alpes

A Complex Project

• Conversion of 3rd floor
  Specifically designed conversion to make workplaces for members of parliament and new fraction offices, construction of a new conference room with modern infrastructure and inter-preters’ cabins.
• Renovation of the hall under the main dome
  Renovation and cleaning of the stone walls, window ledges and sculptures, repair of cracks, new carpet, new lighting system.
• New lifts
  The two main lifts in the central hall will be replaced and two new lifts will be installed running from the terrace in front of the parliament up to the 3rd floor.
• New visitors’ entrance/new services
  A new visitors’ entrance will be constructed on the terrace in front of the building providing di-rect access to the main hall and a new service floor with an IT room and a ventilation system will be installed.
• New cafeteria
  A new cafeteria will be built in the Galerie des Alpes offering a more extensive menu.

Work Plan, Approximate Schedule, Budget

• Members of parliament will be able to move back into the building in December 2007, when the scaffolding and the netting have been dismantled and the national monument will once again be showing off its original grandeur.
• The final work should be completed in 2008 according to the schedule.
• As part of the civil building programmes for 2004 and 2006, parliament has approved a total budget of Fr. 83 million for this project.

Impact, Information Office, Guided Tours

• Members of parliament and the staff of the parliamentary services have been moved to the East and West Wings of the parliament building for the duration of the renovation work.
  Fraction and committee meetings are having to be held elsewhere, in fact in specially in-stalled conference rooms dotted all over the city.
• The parliament will continue to sit within the parliament building, with restricted space and us-ing temporary installations, however. The public galleries will also stay open while parliament is sitting.
• The information pavilion that has been set up in front of the West Wing of the parliament building is open to the general public for the duration of the renovation work. The pavilion provides information about parliamentary sessions and the renovation project.