Re-gardening the park city
2022
with Nora Hochuli and Anna Oexle
A research and design project, it deals with the Dreispitz neighbourhood in the Zurich suburbs and its prospected redevelopment, which aims at increasing the floor-to-area ratio from 0.4% to 1.5% but officially is meant to maintain the 'garden city' atmosphere of the original 1950s housing estate.
The current garden-scape of the garden city is marked by the coexistence of common green lawns and individualised small private plots, while the proposal is defined by shared green spaces, where the maintenance is completely outsourced and there is no space for appropriation. Our project argues for maintaining several of the original houses and repurposing them to serve common functions. Many of these buildings are in fact not impacting the floor plans of the proposed masterplan, but would be demolished simply to develope shared green areas squeezed new between multi-storey housing blocks. Mantaining the existing terraced houses would prevent unnecessary material waste, provide higher density and an urban character, define a more fragmented and intimate garden landscape, as well as preserve the historical memory of the place.
The project was developed within the framework of the Studio of Jan de Vylder at ETH Zurich, between February and May 2022. It was the result of a research process and dialogue about the history of the neighbourhood, its inhabitants and of housing cooperatives in Zurich.
The current garden-scape of the garden city is marked by the coexistence of common green lawns and individualised small private plots, while the proposal is defined by shared green spaces, where the maintenance is completely outsourced and there is no space for appropriation. Our project argues for maintaining several of the original houses and repurposing them to serve common functions. Many of these buildings are in fact not impacting the floor plans of the proposed masterplan, but would be demolished simply to develope shared green areas squeezed new between multi-storey housing blocks. Mantaining the existing terraced houses would prevent unnecessary material waste, provide higher density and an urban character, define a more fragmented and intimate garden landscape, as well as preserve the historical memory of the place.
The project was developed within the framework of the Studio of Jan de Vylder at ETH Zurich, between February and May 2022. It was the result of a research process and dialogue about the history of the neighbourhood, its inhabitants and of housing cooperatives in Zurich.
