In 2004 we made an entry for the international competition of the CU-west area in Uetikon at the borders of the lake of Zürich. The Chemie Uetikon area is approximately 73.000 m2. With an extending production during centuries the winning of land from the lake was needed. Chemie Uetikon AG has the intention now to move the production facilities to a new and bigger location if a plan for the current site with new functions is valuable.
The current bank of Lake Zürich is a green area with small villages and groups of houses. At the Chemie Uetikon area the freestanding building structure is changing into an industrial conglomerate with big volumes in a high density. The massive building structures leave small outside spaces, based on an infrastructure of four parallel long east-west streets. Perpendicular the building structure leaves narrow views towards the lake.
The current topographic structures are checked by a tomography scan from west to east. Goal is to explore each zone of the area by its tomographic section to make the best intervention in this specific area. Resulting in an interesting building typology with lake views and new connections for each zone in its specific way to the lake.
The result is a plan with eight different urban structures from west to east, as a shaslik connected by the infrastructure.
Concept Design
CHEMIE-UETIKON
Urban redevelopment Industrial area Chemie Uetikon Zürich CH
Client: Metron AG, Chemie + Papier Holding AG; Chemie Uetikon AG
Collaborating Architects: urbanoffice Madir Shah, urbanplus Daniel Kobel
Site 73.000 M2
Housing, commercial buildings, cultural buildings and leisure