Schwamendingen district, Zurich, Switzerland

Designed more than 50 years ago as Zurich’s “garden room” with spacious living quarters and permeable outdoor spaces, the Schwamendingen district has retained its green character to this day. However, many apartments in the quarter no longer met today’s living standards, which is why a competition for new construction was announced.

For construction site A, the design by Zurich architects BS+EMI Architektenpartner AG convinced the panel. Their project “CASARECCE” places six five-storey, curved row buildings - mirrored and grouped in pairs - on the competition site. Two row buildings are terminated by single-storey commercial buildings along Dübendorfstrasse. This has allowed the architects to create exciting and high-quality free spaces.

The apartments are also cleverly designed: They have continuous living/dining areas oriented to two sides with a view of the outside. The living rooms with balconies are alternately oriented to the wider, the kitchens to the narrower outdoor space. The eat-in kitchen can be separated by a glass skylight and a glass door, and the simple floor plan is functional and well-lit despite the small size of the flat.

From the outside, the slender buildings impress with a facade made of fiber cement panels. Around 2,000 kg of our castable polyurethane elastomer PUR elastomer A60 was used for the individual structure. This product is also available to order easily and conveniently via the new RECKLI online shop. The Elementwerk Istighofen AG precast plant poured the fiber cement panels, which emphasize the vertical with their repetitive pattern and lend the facade rhythm.

Overall, the design reflects A.H. Steiner’s original Garden City concept from the 1940s, preserves its qualities in a contemporary way - and shows that it’s possible to meet the urban development challenges of the future.