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The replacement for the Kanzleistrasse residential estate is an independent large-scale urban configuration that fits into the structure of cooperative courtyard estates in the Hard district. Along with Erismannhof, the Seebahnstrasse residential estate and Lochergut, the Kanzleistrasse residential courtyard forms a new overall urban shape along the railway cutting on Seebahnstrasse.

The courtyard features a ‘sunshine meadow’ with its splendid old trees. A shared garden and protected playgrounds offer residents leisure facilities and encourage social exchanges within the estate. The large structure is formulated with an urban-style basement storey, a nuanced plaster façade and frieze-like roof edging as a self-aware urban building. The façade echoes the colouring of the predecessor building and reinterprets it in two colour shades. The height of seven storeys, untypical for Zurich, is thereby made legible and also diminished in its impact. A sculptural base of rusticated artificial stone elements raises the quality of the façade and emphasizes the public nature of the gate-like courtyard entrances.

The mixture of family apartments, apartments for older people, and shared accommodation units provides for a varied and lively residential community. The center of the apartments consists of a spatially nuanced continuous main area consisting of kitchen, dining area and living area. With the doors open during the day, the apartment appears as a spatial continuum divided by crosswalls. At night, the same side walls form intimate entrance situations for the bedrooms.

2014-2015
Location: Zurich, Switzerland
Programme: 210 Unit Cooperative Housing Project
Client: Allgemeine Baugenossenschaft Zürich
Net Surface: 32’000 m2
Project Status: Invited Competition