Steinacker Estate in Zurich

As part of its efforts to create reasonably priced dwellings, the city of Zurich looked for an urban site that it could make available to a housing organization on a 66-year lease. An appropriate area of land was found on the southern edge of the city, and an architectural competition was drawn up in conjunction with two housing cooperatives. The schemes submitted by the ten architects who were invited to participate in the competition presented quite different solutions – from linear and meandering structures to high-rise blocks. The brief required the provision of as great a density as reasonably possible, in view of which, the creation of point blocks proved to be the best solution.