Housing Development Hohlstrasse, Zurich

Even the best architecture can't change the traffic congestion on Hohlstrasse. Apart from that, there isn't much to resolve in terms of urban planning on Stüdliweg - just a little adjustment is enough. For the courtyard on Stüdliweg is pleasant and well proportioned in its current form - but little appropriated because it is a bit out of the way. This is why the proposal here is to open up the central courtyard to the whole width of Ernastrasse, so that a genuine community square can be created here, whose communal life radiates out into Ernastrasse and suggests an 'honorary courtyard' towards Hohlstrasse. The central projection, which is slightly set back behind a group of slender trees, designates the public space and creates a friendly place in the middle of the traffic axis.

On the Stüdliplatz, the residential community is staged - in the literal sense of the word: in the same way that stage sets are lined up on both sides of a stage brochure, balcony towers are assembled here. And just as the actors appear and disappear, so the residents enter the courtyard life on the balconies or withdraw from it.