Development «Stadtstück Schlieren», Building Plot A2

Schlieren-West is being transformed from a commercial area into suburbia. Today used cars stand waiting for a purchaser, where half-a-century ago industry trailed off into the open fields and piles of boards were stored along the railway line, stacked up to an impressive height. It was this image that inspired the whole design, from the urban planning to the construction.

Today it is the railway that largely dominates public perception of the site. The strict rows of variously laden freight wagons on the nearby shunting yards act as a stimulation to arrange the buildings similarly.

The articulated antithesis of density and distance are absent from the suburban context of Schlieren. In comparison, the new planning pursues a strategy of contrasts: high buildings alternate with low halls, narrow alleys with wide squares, inward glimpses with outward views.

Because recent local history shows the force of the dynamics that urban development can unleash, the strategy followed in this case is equally both open and robust. The neutral structure of the base of the building enables both residency and working. The residential towers emerge from this mineral base, conceived as entirely wooden structures, their materiality coming full circle back to the design’s point of departure – the piles of boards on the railway line.