Trouvaille Sihlquai

On the eve of the 20th century the lower Sihlquai in Zürich was reinvented as a grand boulevard of new technological infrastructure for the National Fair of 1883. Today only traces remain. Rediscovering these fragments of industrial archaelolgy will be the starting point for small riverside public buildings. Like the great electric pylons of 1883, our small structures will be catalyst for re-imagining the wider public infrastructure along the Sihl.

The studio will continue its primary concerns with tectonics and forms of urban and architectural bricolage. The studio will emphasise the duality between the model as miniature building and its presence as an autonomous artefact. We will start the semester with a 1:1 pavillion at the ETH Zürich Hönggerberg.

We will explore the potential of its empty industrial infrastructure. Working with the cunning of the bricoleur we shall look for small adjustments. Architectural strategies which accept absence and emptiness as a critical alternative to regeneration through fullness.

There will be a short site visit from Friday 7th to Monday 10th of October (240CHF - 450CHF).

We will start the semester by building a structure for performance next to Escher-Wyss-Platz, Zürich. We will collaborate with ZHDK and VBZ to develop a series of events which our structure supports.