The Am Ueberlandpark project sets out to reimagine the natural surroundings promised by the traditional garden city.

The ASIG Wohngenossenschaft (Worker’s Housing Cooperative) plans to remodel its housing scheme in Dreispitz, with a key focus on social responsibility. The second phase is defined by the Master Plan Dreispitz Site and, in terms of planning law, by the Development Plan Ueberlandpark, which defines the development of the sub-areas that border the new Ueberlandpark outdoor public-amenity space on top of the recently covered motorway.

A ribbon development of high- and low-rise buildings spatially connects with the elevated Ueberlandpark, twinned with an apartment tower with a children’s nursery.

Shaped as linear buildings, the housing takes the form of balcony apartments. The apartments are entered via a glazed spatial layer containing the entrée and the kitchen. The kitchen is orientated towards the open-air walkway, giving the living area a sense of privacy. The maisonette units combine the qualities of an apartment with those of a terraced house. A double-storey open gallery space with an extra-wide spiral staircase creates a vibrant centerpiece around which life in the apartment revolves. The high-rise block is inspired by the lightness of Zurich’s post-war residential towers. Its radial floor plan opens each apartment out towards the surrounding landscape.

Outdoor walkways and spacious balconies lend the residential buildings an open and inviting character. The walkway buildings harmonize with the surrounding green spaces, with protruding fibre-cement ribbon elements creating a floating appearance. The overall open look echoes tree foliage or bird plumage. The communal spaces are connected to the Ueberlandpark via a bridge. Additional facilities, such as multi-purpose rooms, a cooking studio and a community meeting space, enrich shared living in the development.

The structural system follows a column–slab principle, with exposed supports and beams and thin floors and a non-load-bearing timber post-and-beam system forming the building envelope. Combined with the walkway access, the buildings allow long-term adaptability to meet the changing needs of the housing cooperative.