Research Projects

Research Project
Dr. Susanne Schindler, Dr. André Bideau, Marie-Anne Lerjen and students of MAS GTA
2022–2023

The demolition and redevelopment of housing, as established in the city of Zurich over the past decades as Ersatzneubau, is nothing new. But which arguments have been used to legitimate this practice at different times and in different places? How do aesthetic, political and economic interests become intertwined in urban renewal projects?

In the spring semester 2022, MAS GTA students sought answers to these questions. In pairs, they selected case studies in Europe, North America and Asia to trace local specificities: Beijing, Corbeil-Essonnes, Glasgow, Hamburg, Minneapolis, Porto, Turin, Vancouver and Zurich. Our working thesis was that a historical and global perspective would reveal patterns of narratives and actions and contribute to a more nuanced understanding of Ersatzneubau.

Indeed: the current wave of renewal, just like its precursors, is legitimated with rational arguments. If, in the early twentieth century, it was promises of “hygiene,” “good citizenship” or “affordability” that legitimated tabula rasa planning, today keywords including “sustainability;” “quality” or “urbanity” enable large-scale clearance. But what may seem self-evident and reasonable in one moment, is often barely comprehensible a few decades later.

Lecturers Research Semester MAS GTA
Susanne Schindler, André Bideau, Marie-Anne Lerjen

Students Research Semester MAS GTA
Thomas Birchmeier, Fabian Diem, Carolina Gomes, Ana Sofia Gonçalves, Noemi Grodtke, Lisa Henicz, Denise Janes, Laura Lampe, Maria-Theresa Lampe, Franziska Matt, Justina Mangels, Dominik Müller, Fabian Ruppanner, Marta Shtipkova, Ania Tschenett, Benedict Wahlbrink, Yeshi Wang

The results of the research semester were presented in the spring of 2023 in the exhibition “Densification or Displacement?” conceived together with the MAS in Housing (ETH) at ZAZ BELLERIVE Zentrum für Architektur Zürich.

Download the pdf of the research results here (in German only).

Research Project
Anne Kockelkorn and Susanne Schindler with the students of the MAS
2020–2021

external page www.cooperativeconditions.net

Research Question
Over the past twenty years, building on a century-old tradition, housing cooperatives in Zurich, Switzerland have realized highly experimental architecture for living together, challenging established notions of what and who constitutes a household: apartments for 50 or more individuals, clusters of micro-units, live-work apartments, and short-duration rentals, to name just a few.

These experimental forms of living together have gained international recognition in recent years. But what, exactly, makes this architecture possible? Who owns the land, on what terms, and due to which historical developments? Why are Zurich’s cooperatives, all non-profit in perpetuity, considered reliable lenders even to conventional banks? What is the interest rate on the mortgage and what its duration? These are key questions if we are to envision an alternative for living together in a world ever more strongly characterized by financialized investment in real estate and a resulting rise in socio-economic inequality.

Goal
The goal is to better understand the interplay and mutual dependency of the architecture of cooperative housing and its political and economic regulation. By looking at the form of architecture and the city in conjunction with the history of this particular political economy of housing, we hope to articulate scopes of action for architects today.

Formats
The resulting installation (Station) at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2021 will articulate these realms of action in graphic and textual form. The installation will involve a vertical surface. In this way, Biennale visitors will be able to see connections between the eight dossiers, each dedicated to explaining one financial, legal or regulatory instrument and its interplay with architecture and social space. Visitors will be able to learn from Zurich’s Cooperative Conditions for other, and very different, settings around the world. The results will also be made accessible on a website and in book form.

Partners
Cooperative Conditions is made possible through the generous support of: gta Institute, Department of Architecture (D-ARCH), Ernst Göhner Stiftung, Pro Helvetia, Allgemeine Baugenossenschaft Zürich (ABZ), Wohnbaugenossenschaften Schweiz (WBG).

Research and Teaching
This research project is being produced by the students of the MAS ETH in History and Theory of Architecture as part of a research seminar.
Students: Kadir Asani, Nina Baisch, Hanae Balissat, Anna Derriks, Sébastien El Idrissi, Armin Fuchs, Lale Geyer, Rebekka Hirschberg, Sarah Hummel, Sanna Kattenbeck, Abbas Mansouri, Bianca Matzek, Olga Rausch, Gina Rauschtenberger, Kristin Sasama, Kana Ueda, Alexia Zeller.
Projekt management: Rebekka Hirschberg.
Grafic design: Monobloque

Research Focus
Prof. Dr. Sylvia Claus, Sabine Sträuli, Marie-Anne Lerjen and the students of the gta MAS
2018–2020

On the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the Swiss Exhibition for Women’s Work (SAFFA 58), the gta MAS organized the research seminar “Switzerland’s Women Architects” in the fall of 2018. It was led by Sylvia Claus (gta MAS director through December 2018), Sabine Sträuli and Marie-Anne Lerjen. The work and realized buildings of women architects in Switzerland continues to be underrepresented in architectural scholarship. With an earlier research project on Switzerland’s first woman architect, Lux Guyer (1894–1955), the gta MAS had already significantly contributed toward writing this history.

In the seminar “Switzerland’s Women Architects,” students studied the conditions specific to Swiss architects in the course of the twentieth century and selected works were compared according to building type. Architects included early pioneers Flora Steiger-Crawford (1899–1991), Berta Rahm (1910–1998) and Jeanne Bueche (1912–2000), as well as contemporary protagonists Regina Gonthier (*1949) und Inès Lamunière (*1954), among others. Archival research and interviews shed new light on individuals’ careers as well as on relationships among projects.

The result will be presented on a website designed by gta MAS students and alumni in collaboration with BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg. The website reflects on twenty architects’ experiences through personal portraits and three selected projects each. The website also includes a younger generation of women architects, among them Corinna Menn (*1974) and Angela Deuber (*1975).

Contributing gta MAS students: Bülent Abbasoglu, Kadir Asani, Nina Baisch, Anna Derriks, Miriam Dobler, Christoph Feinweber, Rune Frandsen, Rebekka Hirschberg, Constanze Kummer, Bianca Matzek, Eva Nägeli, Haaike Peeters, Lucia Pennati, Hanae Pfändler, Franziska Quandt, Olga Rausch, Florian Rietmann, Catherine Sark, Philipp Sax, Francine Speiser, Alexia Zeller

Website (in progress): external page www.schweizerarchitektinnen.ch