Brunaupark Zurich

The urban planning design complies with the duty, or virtue, to form an independent whole: a huge esplanade above Wannerstrasse centres the entire area, and opposite Giesshübelstrasse, the perimeter development closes and encloses the street space.

The disposition of the esplanade includes explicit figures in its arrangement, the rhythm of the façades, the limited spaces, the rectangular green spaces that come together in the elongated courtyard to form a whole, for it is the space of this very courtyard that organizes everything. This urban tradition of “space-rooms” open on top and their connection to a sequential arrangement, an enfilade, represents an antipodal position to the open order espoused by Modernism with its vision of a “green city”. A city of Steiner's master planning that, with its low and linear buildings, has such a low density that it can hardly absorb the force of the new and denser structures any more. The new composition of the structures, however, with their vistas and their long but not very high buildings, allows a depth layout to emerge, which is characterized by the higher end buildings, without masking the adjoining area to the south towards the settlement park and the commons. The northern triangle between the esplanade and the ascending Giesshübelstrasse overcomes, in its section, the jumps in elevation and forms a large-scale patio settlement above the horizontal sales floors, which takes up the scale of the neighbouring town.

LOCATION: Zurich

STUDY CONTRACT: 2017

CLIENT: Pension fund of the Credit Suisse Group, Zurich

MEILI, PETER & PARTNER ARCHITEKTEN:

Markus Peter, Patrick Rinderknecht, Alice Hucker

Leonie Amsler, Andreas Haupolter

LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE: Müller, Illien Landschaftsarchitekten, Zürich

CONSTRUCTION ENGINEER: Nänny+Partner, St. Gallen

RENDERINGS: Besa Zajmi, Zürich