Ziegeleiplatz Phase II, Dättnau, Winterthur

Together with Graber Pulver Architekten and Krebs Herde Landschaftsarchitekten in 2017 Fischer Architekten developed a master plan that formed the basis for the new centre of this outlying district in Winterthur. A good four years later Ziegeleiplatz (Brickworks Square), located between plots 1, 2a and 3 which been developed in the intervening period, was inaugurated and now forms an important new centre with facilities for shopping and community life at the entrance to the Dättnau Valley.

Plot 2b relates to these public functions and along Dättnauerstrasse provides additional charging stations in the end elements of all four buildings. As these end elements are three storeys high, in terms of urban planning they create a transition between the multi-storey buildings on the brickworks site and the lower, mostly two-storey neighbouring development.

Arne Jacobsen’s Bellavista housing estate provided an important reference for the genesis of these three housing blocks. Whereas in Jacobsen’s project the balconies extend towards the Öresund, here they are staggered in the direction of the floodplain landscape of the Dättnau Valley, the edge of the nearby woods, and a new public open space that has been made at the heart of the development. Six staircases that serve two flats on each floor provide access to a total of 48 rental apartments.

In terms of geometry and materialisation the commercial building relates to the three apartment houses. While the latter employ an architecture of punched window openings, in the commercial building recycled clinker bricks are used to make a parapet band. The simple but high-quality materialisation of both interior and exterior shows the influence of Ernst Gisel and the Aaltos and relates to the other plots in terms of colour and materials.

Three architecture offices and the same number of landscape architecture practices were and still are involved in implementing the master plan that consists of four plots in all. This results in a refreshing diversity that does not impinge on the coherence of the buildings.