Exopolis Northern Zurich

The rese­arch semi­nar inves­ti­ga­tes the new deve­lo­p­ments in the nor­t­hern area of Zurich, in the quick­ly expan­ding twin city sur­roun­ding the air­port. What are the mun­da­ne qua­li­ties of this eccen­tric and patch­work-like urban con­fi­gu­ra­ti­on, refer­red to as “exo­po­lis” by Edward Soja? We advan­ce to this ques­ti­on by means of rese­arch on con­cre­te urban situa­tions by typi­fi­ca­ti­on, obser­va­ti­on and interviews. 
The objec­ti­ve of the semi­nar is to recon­s­truct and image the net­works of ever­y­day life and to then phra­se state­ments on the qua­li­ties and defi­ci­ts of the­se forms of housing. We are par­ti­cu­lar­ly inte­res­ted in fin­ding out which types of use and forms of ever­y­day orga­niza­ti­on are inhi­bi­ted or enab­led by spe­ci­fic urban design struc­tures. The semi­nar con­sti­tu­tes the third part of the sequence on urban trans­for­ma­ti­ons in the metro­po­li­tan regi­on of Zurich. The results will be incor­po­ra­ted in the rese­arch pro­ject on the topic of Urban Poten­ti­als and Stra­te­gies in Metro­po­li­tan Territories.

Cont­act: Chris­ti­an Schmid, Rahel Nüss­li, Caro­li­ne Ting