Town in Red: St. Gallen’s Stadtlounge

Stadtlounge – Roter Platz, Pipilotti Rist (artist) and Carlos Martinez (architect). Photo: Johannes Mar

In the heart of the Bleicheli-Quartier of St. Gallen lies the striking and unconventional public art project known as the Stadtlounge, or Red Square. Conceived by the multimedia and video artist Pipilotti Rist together with architect Carlos Martinez, the work was commissioned by Raiffeisen Schweiz as part of the final development stage of the Bleicheli quarter and was completed in 2005.

At its core, the Stadtlounge transcends mere urban furniture or landscape architecture: it is a deliberate work of public art. The designers wrapped more than 2,600 square meters of public space including roads, pavements, benches, tables, chairs, and even a car in a continuous layer of bright red polyurethane or rubber granulate, transforming a functional traffic space into a “living room” in the open air. The installation invites bodies, not just eyes, to engage. For Rist, it was about making a place where people spend time with one another, walk around and linger, a democratic gesture that dissolves the boundary between art and everyday life. The Square is freely accessible around the clock, located at Raiffeisenplatz 2, in the center of St. Gallen. Visitors tread on the soft flooring, rest on sculptural furniture, and in the evening experience the hovering, luminous bubbles that glow above the square.

Roter Platz, Pipilotti Rist ,Carlos Martinez. Photo: Johannes Mar

From an urbanistic standpoint, the installation also operates as a “shared space” experiment: pedestrians, cyclists, and cars coexist on a surface without curbs or painted lines, united by the continuous red field. Urban design publications have cited it as a pilot project for pedestrian-oriented, traffic-calmed environments.

Historically, the Bleicheli site was once part of St. Gallen’s textile-bleaching industry, which gave the area its name. As the industrial age receded, the area evolved into a commercial and residential zone, and with Raiffeisen’s redevelopment it became a corporate-driven block dominated by offices. To invigorate its external public spaces, the city and the bank held a competition that Martinez and Rist won. The red carpet aesthetic binds together this heterogeneous fabric and signals a shift from leftover back-lot spaces to an intentionally designed public realm.

Roter Platz), Pipilotti Rist (artist) and Carlos Martinez (architect). Photo: Johannes Mar

Although the reception of the Stadtlounge has included a range of perspectives, most have celebrated it as Switzerland’s largest outdoor “playground”, a bold and welcoming intervention that brings relaxation and playfulness to what has once become a formal banking district. At the same time, some observers have reflected on how similar sponsorship models can blur the boundary between public art and corporate identity. Interestingly, the red-coated Porsche integrated into the lounge, a playful hallmark of Rist’s tactile and humorous style, seems to offer its own witty, almost philosophical response to complex questions.

Regardless of the context, the area stands as a potent statement of what public art can be: a sensorial, participatory reimagining of urban space that merges aesthetic form with social function. It offers an experience of inclusion and ease. In walking its soft red terrain, one is invited to wear many hats: a guest, a spectator, a participant, release one's inner child and immerse into this experience in a continuing dialogue between art, architecture and the living.

Text by Donna Leonard

Address:

Raiffeisenplatz 2, 9000 St. Gallen, Switzerland

Commissioned by:

Raiffeisen Schweiz, as part of the final development stage of the Bleicheli quarter