Sulzer Redevelopment

Character

The Sulzer area achieves its unique character by maintaining the character of an industrial area. Once the tabula rasa approach of the first plans was dismissed, the city council was able to secure the protection of most of the building stock. By now the owners outperform the agreements on heritage and refurbish more buildings than they are legally obliged to do.

Apart from the distinctive brick architecture, many other vestiges of the industrial past add to the development’s character, such as rail tracks, wagons or crane runways. The mix of uses including commercial, housing, retail, leisure, education and especially the artists' studios provides for a truly urban environment. It also ensures that the area is continually populated and thus feels safe.

Roads, parking and pedestrianisation

The area can be accessed through comparatively few roads, which are connected by large pedestrianised areas. All open spaces are publicly accessible without any restrictions.

A very important contributing factor to the special character of the project is the landscape design by Vetsch Nipkow & Partners. It enhances the existing qualities in a pleasantly unspectacular and casual manner. They neither swamp the space with the usual mix of trees, benches and flowerbeds nor did they conserve it in the state they found it in. Instead, they used the elements they found on site, specific materials and spatial features, and transformed those into a new network of public spaces.

The hard surface of streets and squares is being kept continuously extending to the walls of the buildings. The design of the gutters for example resembles the rail tracks that cut thorough the area. The main square "Katharina Sulzer Platz" has been covered with a mixture of iron grit and gravel, which has assumed a slightly pink hue.

The streets have largely been kept free of collateral parking, which adds to the character of the area. Only a few parking spaces have been specifically assigned to individual units. All newly constructed buildings are served by underground car parks. The large hall next to the square is currently used as a provisional car park for residents and visitors. In addition there are three multi storey car parks located in the immediate vicinity of the development.

Design and construction

As the owner of the area, the Sulzer Immobilien AG, invested in the public spaces and plans to recoup the investment through the income from future land sales, they ensure that only high quality architecture is built in order to guarantee high land values. This is especially true for the residential architecture, which is a means of ensuring the future potential for development.

All housing projects offer accommodation of the highest spatial quality. This includes on the one hand a very diverse mix of typologies and sizes, on the other hand the units themselves. All units can be used either by families or as flat shares and allow work from home.

The design of the architecture and landscaping refers to the character of the adjoining fabric. The housing along the Katharina Sulzer Platz has been built to integrate a former crane runway into its façade: for the "Lokomotive" project, an industrial hall with glass roof has been transformed into a covered access space for the flats that have been built along its sides. The façades of these housing blocks have been modelled onto those of the old factory, their rather austere design is a reminder of the former industrial use of the site.

The owners of the site do not act as developers of individual projects. Contracts with developers are negotiated individually and will in their final form include the specific design for a site. In general the owners of the site will legally retain the freehold of the land until building permission is granted. This enables them to influence and control the design process for individual projects beyond the stage of outline planning permission.

Environment and community

The Sulzer area has been planned and developed as a sustainable community. A lot of effort has been made to re-use as much of the building stock as possible and to transform it to meet new needs; the sturdy but high-quality of design will create enough value to ensure not only physical but also social stability. This includes the fact that pioneering users are protected from being squeezed out of the area as the project develops. The small-scale mix of uses adds to the sustainability of the project as a new neighbourhood.

The area is privately owned and the development is privately financed, but the local authority significantly influenced the outcome: Early on, by opposing the plans for demolition, and throughout the project through joint workshops and events. The cooperation between owner and local authority has been extended and the further development of the area is currently decided in close collaboration of the two. The step-by-step approach to the development has enabled the owners to react to the market situation and to constantly adjust the neighbourhood to changing or newly evolving demands.

Two gas-fuelled district heating plants are located within the neighbourhood.  Guided tours through the new neighbourhood are offered by the local authority on a regular basis. These help to make Winterthur’s residents familiar with the new urban neighbourhood.