Angaben zur Professur

Lehrstuhl 

Professur F. Persyn

Typ 

Professur für Architektur und Städtebau

Standort 

ONA

Webseite 

www.persyn.arch.ethz.ch

Assistierende 

Ellena Ehrl, Michiel van Iersel, Juan Barcia Mas, Sophia Garner

Kontakt E-Mail 

ehrl@arch.ethz.ch

Angaben zur Entwurfsklasse

Typ 

Entwurf V-IX

Thema 

Studio Schwamendingen–Living on the Edge

Beschreibung
des Entwurfs-programmes 

Life thrives at the edges. How can design and urban planning help peripheral places and practices flourish? During our 2026 autumn studio we invite you to join us in exploring the potential of the periphery and reimagine the various edge conditions that characterize Schwamendingen. Historically a garden city and working-class neighbourhood on the outskirts of Zürich, Schwamendingen is increasingly pulled into the dynamics of tabula-rasa densification and generic mixed-use urbanism and Ersatzneubau. Situated between the city center and rural areas, bordered by infrastructures and Zürichberg, and shaped by a remarkably diverse population, the district has long existed in a condition of in-betweenness. To inhabit the edge is to deal with difference, to invent new forms of coexistence, and to continually redefine one’s relationship to the centre. It is precisely in these conditions of overlap and exchange that new ways of life can emerge and from where peripheral practices emerge and spread. How can these qualities be revealed, amplified and structurally integrated into the urban transformation process of Schwamendingen? Can its edges and borders–between city and landscape, public and private, formal and informal–be cultivated as spaces of encounter and collective agency? Who is already there, who might leave, who might come? And can they help generate alternative urban practices that counterbalance market-driven real-estate development while safeguarding diversity, affordability, sustainability and social cohesion? The studio departs from the position of one specific person, namely the life and practice of artist and photographer Ruth Erdt, who has lived and worked in Schwamendingen for over thirty years. Her life story, of how she arrived in Schwamendingen and created her own habitat that is now under increasing pressure from new developments, serves both as a source of inspiration and cautionary tale. Through her artistic practice and recent book K12 Schwamendingen, on the Periphery of Zürich, we begin to engage with this rapidly changing environment and its inhabitants. Where could today’s Ruth find a place to build a life? The studio will unfold in three main acts: during the first act you will take a deep dive in the urban dynamics of Schwamendingen, turning your first hand experience into a series of portraits–inspired by Ruth’s work–that reveal the edge conditions and spatial and social qualities of the district. In the second phase you zoom out and start to understand the dominant narratives and hidden stories shaping Schwamendingen by using film as the main medium. In the final phase you will translate your impressions and insights into a series of situated projects and a collective plan of potentials that can serve as a guideline for an alternative urban transformation, which unites a patchwork of locally grounded spatial proposals and practices that we will bring together and present in a unifying form. We will look at Schwamedingen with curious eyes. We will work closely with a wide variety of people, both everyday experts and professional artists, film makers, (landscape) designers and planners, while applying a broad range of experimental design in dialogue tools. Throughout the whole semester our Design in Dialogue Lab at ONA will double as a social space for a.o. collective cooking and a reading club, and as a room of entanglement, where the observations and proposals you develop will be tested, connected and communicated.

Thematische und methodische Schwerpunkte 

Entwurf, Staedtebau, Landschaftsarchitektur, Urban Transformation

Lernziele 

PRACTICING ARCHITECTURE TODAY Explore architectural practice beyond the design of individual buildings by engaging with existing places, people, practices and processes of transformation. Develop alternative ways of acting within urban change, revealing existing qualities, facilitating dialogue, building alliances and translating situated knowledge into spatial propositions. READING THE EXISTING Learn to observe and document the spatial, social and ecological realities of Schwamendingen through direct engagement with the district and its inhabitants. Identify edge conditions, everyday practices, conflicts and overlooked qualities, and develop ways of making them visible through portraits, mappings and other forms of situated research. UNDERSTANDING URBAN TRANSFORMATION Develop a critical understanding of the forces shaping contemporary urban development, including densification, replacement construction, changing demographics and market-driven development. Learn to distinguish dominant narratives from hidden or peripheral stories and to understand how different actors, interests and forms of knowledge shape the transformation of a place. LEARNING TOOLS AND METHODS Experiment with photography, film, mapping, drawing, interviews and other Design in Dialogue methods as tools for architectural research and design. Learn to move between different scales and forms of representation, from individual stories and spatial observations to urban strategies, and use these methods to develop and communicate a clear position. DESIGNING FROM THE PERIPHERY Develop situated architectural and urban propositions that emerge from the specific conditions, actors and practices already present in Schwamendingen. Explore how edges and borders between public and private, formal and informal, city and landscape can become productive spaces for encounter, coexistence and collective agency. COMMUNICATING AND COLLABORATING Learn to work with a multiplicity of perspectives by engaging with inhabitants, everyday experts, artists, filmmakers, designers and planners. Contribute actively to a collaborative studio culture and learn to connect individual projects into a collective plan of potentials that articulates alternative possibilities for the future transformation of Schwamendingen.

LV-Nr. des Entwurfs 

052-1122-26

Unterrichts-sprache 

English

Arbeitsweise 

Nur Gruppenarbeit

Daten Zwischenkritiken 

Wed. 14.10. & Wed. 18.11.

Datum Schlusskritik 

Wed 16.12.

Einführungs-veranstaltung 

Tue 15.09. 09:30, Hüttenkopfstrasse 12, Schwamendingen

Zusätzliche Kosten 

CHF 50 (Schätzung, ohne allfällige Kosten für Modellbau und Seminarwoche)

Verfügbare Plätze 

42

Plakat des Entwurfs-programmes 

Plakat ansehen (PDF Datei)