The residential complex is located on a plot next to the Seen train station, in the eponymous district of Winterthur near Zurich. This territory has belonged to the Hagman family for more than a decade, which was the customer of the project.
50 apartments of various sizes for rent are located in a U-shaped building, where the height at the wings is three, four and five floors, depending on the nature of the existing buildings nearby. Open galleries open into the semi-public courtyard. On the ground floor there is a medical center, the ensemble also includes a former barn, now occupied by various artisan cooperatives, which creates the necessary variety of functions. It also helps preserve local identity, reflecting the rural history of the place and the Hagman family.
The building is a hybrid of wood and concrete, complemented by an all-wood façade. This made it possible to minimize energy costs during construction and operation, which, together with a well-thought-out transport concept (among other things, this is a "no-car" project) meets the goals
"Society 2000 Watt".
Apartments of different sizes are adjacent to each other in different combinations. Other features of the layout include additional rooms that can be temporarily added to the apartment on request, a flexible layout that suits people of different ages and lifestyles, functional "outer rooms" overlooking street facades. This adds social sustainability to the project, as do the public saunas, rooms and gardens, as well as a space with a “neighbor's bar” (a renovated railway carriage) where you can find a pizza oven, a playground and a bocce area. Residents gather at the “bar” every month, and architects note that the community they have envisioned is already growing in size.
The peculiarity of the site is that the diagonal elevation difference there is about 13 m. Therefore, it can be divided into three parts: upper, lower and the slope itself, which was deliberately left free. It will retain its quality of public space even after the implementation of the second phase of the project for 60 apartments. The budget of the first stage was 23.7 million Swiss francs, area - 7875 m2.
