‘Reclaiming Craft.Space’ is an urban proposal for (building) crafts in the city of Zurich. It’s a
vision for a city that celebrates making.
‘Reclaiming Craft.Space’ is an investigation that shows how craft acts beyond the object. As such it navigates within a multi-scaled spectrum: from the brick to the building to the
cityscape.
‘Reclaiming Craft.Space’ is an attempt to negotiate space for building crafts in Zurich and to
acknowledge small local craft businesses which contribute to a diverse city.
The point “.” marks the architectural intervention: On the site of the remaining Güterbahnhof, along the train tracks, a conglomerate of buildings stretches out: a material
logistics hub, crafts educational facilities, archival and exhibition spaces and ateliers for DIYers. An open courtyard and a new square mediate between the uses and the larger surroundings.
The proposal interweaves with the surrounding urban structure and positions itself as a new center for (building) crafts within the city.
Reclaiming Craft.Space is an urban architectural proposal by Samira Lenzin and Edoardo Signori. It was developed as part of their master's thesis at the department of architecture at ETH Zürich (Chair of Prof. An Fonteyne in collaboration with Thomas Kissling).
The Network of Crafts
The network of crafts is a Zurich situated documentation of small craft businesses in relation to infrastructure and city regulations (noise, functional zoning). The map shows the dispersed landscape of crafts, which is that of mixed-use and industrial areas. In addition to noise and zoning regulations, it is also the type and size of the craft business that determines its location in the city.
Research: ‘Reclaiming Craft’
‘Reclaiming Craft’ is an investigation into craft, into its history, its semantics as well as its economic and political environment. It shows that crafts have the power to reach way beyond the expected, namly the object, and are able to explore much larger scales than what is typically associated with them.
Site of Consideration
Along the tracks, two urban intentions collide: from the main station, the language of the Europaallee pushes out of the city culminating in the newly built PJZ (police and justice centre). In contrast, the production strip from Altstetten station reaches into the city, starting with the Werkstadt Zürich, across the Hardfeld, all the way to the Güterbahnhof. What remains is a massive gap – 23’000 m2. Could the strip be woven even further?
![Zürich 1903 [Zurich 1903], 1903 (Baugeschichtliches Archiv Stadt Zürich).](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/40a39d5d8c2c71765f47b9e11d97563109f1bb57eb3e0096a43efa01b1fadf4b/Screenshot-2022-01-23-at-13.50.27.png)
Site of Intervention
The site consists of a conglomerate of buildings that are aligned in relation to the tracks reaching out of the track field. The programme is composed of complementary uses, which spin on the existing. The adjacent open spaces (Werkhof, Werkplatz and Commons) create spatial links between the buildings and help to integrate the conglomerate in the complex and multi-layered immediate surroundings.
