Assistierende |
Lucio Crignola, Lorenza Donati, Tom Emerson, Sonja Flury, Michelle Geilinger, Boris Gusic, Julius Henkel, Amy Perkins |
Beschreibung
des Entwurfs-programmes |
The Hermetschloo area is one of the few sites along the Gleisfeld that remain in their original state. Light industry, commerce, offices, creative work and housing mix with a unique biodiversity and ecosystem to create a very specific place at the edge of the city. In the future, the site will be heavily densified and developed. Starting in the 1990s the industry slowly started to move out, and the pressure on the district to redevelop started to rise. Even though plans approved in a 2005 ‘Gestaltungsplan’ haven’t been carried out, the areas surrounding the track field have been occupied by new construction one after the other. With the formalization of the new Richtplan, the area lies in the high-rise zone, which means that heavy densification is coming its way.
At the same time, the zone is full of strong architectural characters. The Micafil building is the first larger scale solar building in Switzerland, expressing its reach for the sun and its technology-driven ethos clearly in its form. The Schnellgutbahnhof was the first computerized logistics terminal in the country, having been constructed with a prefab system which takes the measure of its components from the train carriages that transported them. But also, there are very generic buildings, in the best way. Commercial buildings, extruding their ground floor surface into multiples of repetitive spaces, which can be appropriated for countless uses, from offices to production to artists’ studios to homes.
These structures are endangered by the aforementioned densification of the area, each for different reasons. How can they be adapted, transformed, reconfigured to become fixtures in a new district, which transport the characteristics and identity of the ‘old’ Hermetschloo into the future?
The task this semester will be to work with the contradictions of excess and the complexities of densification. Three sites, each with specific a architectural logic and expression are for reconsideration, the pioneering production hall for Micafil with its hull of defunct solar collectors, the production hall of the ABB cloaked in a modernist facade, and the stripped back logistical hall of the Schnellgut bahnhof. The specificities of each building under the current construction environment earmark them for demolition, perhaps not next year, but eventually the pressure from Zurich's gradual expansion will force these buildings to be considered. Under scrutiny there will be an excess of complexity, or systems, of specificity, making them too costly to consider for standard renovation or reuse.
Considering the fate of former logistical railway adjacent sites in Zürich, your task is to work with one of these buildings and the wastelands next to them to preempt the development of this site, whilst retaining the now established ruderal ecology. If some small scale demolition works are inevitable if the majority of the built structure is to be retained, how do we design this process with the same care as we dedicate to new constructions? If new construction is required, what is the language of a decarbonised urban development?
"Excess" design studio will run in parallel with the elective "Keep in Place" led by the Chair of Silke Langenberg. It involves an integrated seminar week of practical building exercises in repair. Enrollment in both the elective as well as the seminar week are strongly recommended. |
Thematische und methodische Schwerpunkte |
Entwurf, Konstruktion, Staedtebau, Landschaftsarchitektur, Handwerk |
