City extension, Dietikon, Honourable Mention

Category
Open Competition, Honorable Mention
Client
Europan Europe
Architecture
BHSF
Landscape Architecture
Haag Landscape Architecture
Floor Area incl. basement
122000 m²
Competition Period
2009

Moving to an area like the Niderfeld, the suburbanite usually looks for four important features: a) a garden to sit in and talk to the neighbours, b) a village-space where everybody knows each other, c) a city-like atmosphere in close vicinity, and d) a landscape that children can explore and grown-ups take a walk in. The project provides these four elements and makes them easily accessible for every inhabitant.

As the existing suburban structures stem from inescapable structural mechanisms, most importantly the Ladders analyzed by Albert Pope, the design accepts the existence of these inevitabilities and concentrates on interweaving and strengthening the in-between. Thus the proposed urban plan is, at first sight, composed of conventional types. What is in between these buildings, though, is programmed so that unconventional and diverse patterns of use and appearance can develop.