Freihofstrasse Housing Complex
Zurich, Switzerland
The apartment house on Freihofstrasse, a compact building set along the street with a backyard, maintains and reinforces the urban characteristics of the neighborhood. The project pursued the idea of “simple construction,” which pertains to both its design and the process of its creation. What has emerged is a masonry building with plastered walls devoid of concealed technical installations and added insulation.
The simple floor plans are compact and highly practical. The core of each apartment is the lockable kitchen/dining room. Adjoining it are individual spaces of a consistently similar size, yielding functionally neutral rooms to meet the dissimilar needs of various tenant profiles. At the same time the apartments have a uniquely distinct, vexing quality between that of an old and a new building. Their rooms and elements are distinguished by individual qualities: they are sometimes bright, sometimes shady, and their windows and doors have anthropomorphic characteristics.
In coherence with the urbanistic intention, the architecture also shows restraint. Colored plaster surfaces, which enter into an exciting relationship with the sculpturally configured exterior corridors made of precast concrete elements, typify the architectural expression. An independent character was sought, but one that would also establish a connection to the buildings in the immediate vicinity. Relief work by artist Christian Hörler adorns the projections above both entries, adding a scenographic moment to the building.
Project competition with prequalification in 2015, 1. prize
Construction 2015–2019
- Architects
- EMI Architekt*innen
- Location
- Zurich, Switzerland
- Year
- 2019
- Client
- Stiftung PWG
