Nordküste Affoltern, Zürich
with Patrick Gmür Architekten AG, Cornelia Schweizer, Marc Schwarz, 2004
The main quality of the city of Zurich is its attractive landscape location. The beautiful mountains around and view of the lake has structured the city and its most exclusive development. The North Zurich area extending from the Katzensee to Seebach and Oerlikon still offers the possibility for a large open space area that reaches far into the structure of the city. The fine topography of the Katzen See valley and the small lakes of this area serve the neighborhoods of Affoltern, Oerlikon and Seebach. The study proposes the new vision “North Coast” for this entire area, referring to the renowned “Gold coast” of Zurich along the Zurich lake area. Nordküste proposes a landscape park designed for variety of leisure activities, contributing to an enhanced quality of life for this underprivileged neighborhood. In this study several main city planning concepts are defined: Free space areas, The definition of a new train line as well as new urban landscape vocabulary for the main artery, Wehntalerstrasse. All these concepts point to the development of a new city centre for Affoltern.