ARPA, the winning project

In February 2009, the winners of the one-stage anonymous open project architectural competition are revealed: the ARPA project by Müller Sigrist Architekten AG, Zurich, with HAAG.LA, Zurich (landscape architecture) and Lüchinger + Meyer Bauingenieure AG, Zurich (civil engineering). The plan is to build around 85 new cooperative apartments on approximately 7,500 m2 and commercial areas on around 4,000 m2 above the VBZ tram depot on the Kalkbreite premises by 2013.

The winning team prevails against 53 other competitors. The winning project “ARPA” convinced the jury not only with its urban design, but also with its innovative and visionary implementation of the cooperative’s ideas, which had emerged from the participatory process in the run-up to the competition. With this design, the high demands to maintain social, ecological and economic sustainability could be achieved.

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In addition, the winning project demonstrates that it is also possible to achieve the required Minergie-P standard without compromising the architecture at heavily used inner-city locations. Implementing the new residential concept, novel spatial qualities and functionalities will be created that will greatly reduce individual living space requirements and favor communal space both indoors and outdoors.

At the heart of the premises lies a 2500 m2 public terrace, accessible from Rosengartenplatz via a large staircase. The quarter will thus have a new meeting place the size of half a football field. The Kalkbreite Cooperative was quickly convinced that the Müller Sigrist project for the future residential and commercial estate would be well received by not only the specialists, but also the residents and members of the cooperative, as it combined visionary design with community values.

German only: Download Jury report ARPA