Housing Bülachstrasse in Zurich

Preparation and execution of a contest and a research commission for student housing and for a day care centre on Bülachstrasse in Zurich

The Foundation for Student Housing is planning to build a new student housing complex at the Bülachstrasse in Zurich. The ETH Wohnforum was charged with the task to prepare a data base on housing preferences of students. The team developed a card game which was to establish a link between the level of rent students were willing to pay for housing and the type of housing qualities of high priority to them. The card game was played with 20 students. Additional literature on student housing and low cost approaches to building design and construction was reviewed. Furthermore, students living in two existing student housing complexes were surveyed about their satisfaction with their housing situation and a checklist for constructing student housing was developed.

Based on this information the research team developed a program for an architectural competition and was responsible for organizing and implementing the competition and for the evaluation of the submitted projects in collaboration with additional jurors. In October 1999 three teams of architects were chosen and invited to further develop their projects. The research team will continue to be involved in the project evaluation phase.