24
Avellana Housing Complex
Zurich-Schwamendingen, 2010–2012
Competition, 2010, 1. Prize
Standard Floor

The Avellana housing complex is located in the core area of Zurich-Schwamendingen, where contiguous, rural structures have survived intact to this day. The project perimeter encompasses a defunct farmstead with a farmhouse and barn combined under one roof. The lion’s share of the property was unbuilt and had been used as a garden. This garden was at the rear, tucked away in a second tier hidden behind old building structures facing the street.
In its massing and in its architectural expression, the project takes the garden as its substantive starting point. The design of the building also addresses the two different sides of the space along the brook and the space along the garden, evoking associations with structures that have grown spontaneously. The new building is constructed and clad entirely in wood.
The floor plans of the apartments share a common structure, but each has a different configuration. The form-giving follows a situationally determined spatial concept that adheres to an open and informal character.

> Site

Competition team
Ron Edelaar, Elli Mosayebi, Christian Inderbitzin, Michael Reiterer

Project team
Ron Edelaar, Elli Mosayebi, Christian Inderbitzin, Jonathan Roider, Samuele Tirendi, Pascal Steiner, Sandra Mosbacher, Rosanna May, Dominique Kühnhanss

Client
Wohnbaugenossenschaft Wogeno, Zurich

Landscape Architect: Lorenz Eugster Landschaftsarchitektur und Städtebau GmbH, Zurich
Civil Engineer: APT Ingenieure GmbH, Zurich
Timber Construction Engineer: Timbatec GmbH, Zurich
Building Services: Guyer Wärme und Wasser, Zurich
Electrical Engineer: Scherler Elektroingenieure, Zurich
Building Services: Architektur und Ingenieur Kollektiv, Zurich

Photographs
Roland Bernath

Publication
Contextes. Le logement contemporain en situation, EPFL PRESS 2021
Architekturführer Zürich, Edition Hochparterre 2020
NIKE-Bulletin, 1/2020
House Tour: Views of the Unfurnished Interior, Park Books 2018
werk, bauen + wohnen, 4/2018
Dachräume, Edition Detail 2018
Suburban Polarity, PPUR 2017
Dialectic, 5/2017
Zürcher Wohnungsbau 1995–2015, Quart Verlag 2017
cahier de théorie, 13/2016
www.diariodesign.com, 24.11.2015
d'architectures, 9/2014
Detail, 3/2014
Wohnen, 11/2013
werk, bauen + wohnen, 5/2013
NZZ domicil, 24.5.2013
Hochparterre, 4/2013
archithese, 1/2013
GAM.08, März 2012
Zürcher Landzeitung, 21.6.2010

Auszeichnung
best architects 17
Hochparterre Die Besten 2013, Anerkennung Kategorie Architektur