Description

In 2015, the Kraftwerk1 Cooperative, together with architects Schneider Studer Primas, realized another residential property with collective living spaces at Zwicky Süd, an outlying former spinning mill grounds in Dübendorf, designing it to be entirely mixed-use. During planning, particular care was taken to ensure that the various uses were coordinated and distributed throughout the construction sites and among the respective property developers. The cooperative espouses a combination of living, working, culture, and services that aim to help turn the agglomeration into a piece of the city.[1] The location is challenging, in the midst of a large traffic junction and the associated development mix, but also perfectly connected to the public transport systems. The Kraftwerk1 Cooperative has built 129 residential units in three buildings, connected by access balconies, courtyards, and bridges.[2] In addition to conventional floor plan typologies, several experimental housing units are also available. Residence types range from one-room studios to fourteen-and-a-half-room apartments. Some apartments have been allocated to foundations that offer assisted living or living for young people.

According to the cooperative’s charter, self-responsibility and self-organization are central focal points of the project. This also includes the innovative large communal households, a possible evolution from Cluster Apartments, which spread across two buildings and are connected by a bridge.[3] The housing units are presented as “bridge living” and consist of two Communal Households, one with seven and the other with ten private rooms, none of which have private bathrooms or kitchenettes. The two Communal Households each have separate apartment entrances but share the bridge — a connecting element — as a collective outdoor space for interaction. In particular, the floor plan of the block building, which has a depth of more than 30 meters, results in idiosyncratic spatial solutions, as the innermost rooms are reached by only minimal amounts of natural light. The areas intended as living space extensions can be used, for example, as a library, work area, or movie room. The uses function only with a large and diverse number of residents, helping to spatially divide the deep floor plan into different zones. A variety of spaces with different types of appropriation are available to residents.[4]

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Originally published in: Susanne Schmid, Dietmar Eberle, Margrit Hugentobler (eds.), A History of Collective Living. Forms of Shared Housing, Birkhäuser, 2019. Translation by Word Up!, LLC, edited for Building Types Online.