Urban Qualities

A key acti­vi­ty of the Chair of Socio­lo­gy is the stu­dy of the city in which it is doing tea­ching and rese­arch. Over the years, this city has deve­lo­ped into an exten­si­ve metro­po­li­tan regi­on that extends far into the neigh­bou­ring can­tons. A wide varie­ty of aspects of Zurich’s urba­ni­sa­ti­on are regu­lar­ly dis­cus­sed and rese­ar­ched in the lec­tu­re series, in the elec­ti­ve cour­ses, in the methods cour­se, in the inte­gra­ted disci­pli­ne, in focus works, and in the con­text of Mas­ter’s the­ses. Ana­ly­ses and rese­arch on urban deve­lo­p­ment, public spaces, streets and squa­res, and ever­y­day life in the Zurich metro­po­li­tan regi­on are thus an inte­gral part of tea­ching and rese­arch at the Chair. This work gene­ra­ted a wealth of empi­ri­cal results, from inter­views, obser­va­tions and per­cep­ti­on walks to pho­to­graphs, vide­os and maps to design pro­jects con­tai­ning valuable ana­ly­ses and insights.

 

Natio­nal Rese­arch Pro­gram­me New Urban Qua­li­ty (NRP 65)

In 2010, the Swiss Natio­nal Sci­ence Foun­da­ti­on laun­ched a new Natio­nal Rese­arch Pro­gram­me focu­sing on new urban forms and their qua­li­ty. Five chairs from the Depart­ment of Archi­tec­tu­re joi­n­ed forces and desi­gned a rese­arch pro­ject entit­led “Urban Poten­ti­als and Stra­te­gies in Metro­po­li­tan Ter­ri­to­ries — the Exam­p­le of the Zurich Metro­po­li­tan Area”:
Marc Angé­lil, Archi­tec­tu­re and Urban Plan­ning
Kees Chris­tia­an­se, Urban Plan­ning
Vitto­rio Magna­go Lam­pug­na­ni, Histo­ry of Urban Plan­ning
Chris­ti­an Schmid, Socio­lo­gy
Gün­ther Vogt, Land­scape Architecture

NRP 65 New Urban Quality

 

Urban qua­li­ties in the Zurich metro­po­li­tan region

This inter­di­sci­pli­na­ry rese­arch pro­ject explo­red con­tem­po­ra­ry urba­ni­sa­ti­on pro­ces­ses. Taking into account his­to­ri­cal, design and socio­lo­gi­cal aspects, the rese­arch team deve­lo­ped prin­ci­ples and recom­men­da­ti­ons for sus­tainable urban deve­lo­p­ment in are­as under­go­ing signi­fi­cant urban trans­for­ma­ti­on. In order to focus the rese­arch on spe­ci­fic situa­tions and to deve­lop clear fin­dings, case stu­dies from the Zurich metro­po­li­tan regi­on were exami­ned. The rese­arch ques­ti­on was based on a para­dox: Why do new deve­lo­p­ment are­as have so few urban qua­li­ties? Why is the­re so much pres­su­re on the 19th-cen­tu­ry inner-city block-edge neigh­bour­hoods? How could this situa­ti­on be changed?

Three are­as were sel­ec­ted for in-depth ana­ly­sis. Alt­hough all are­as are high­ly inter­na­tio­nal and cha­rac­te­ri­sed by mas­si­ve urban trans­for­ma­ti­on, they have very dif­fe­rent urban cha­rac­te­ristics and com­ple­te­ly distinct urban qualities.

1) The area around Zurich’s Lang­stras­se, a mixed inner-city block-edge neigh­bour­hood with a high den­si­ty of inter­ac­tion, which is curr­ent­ly under­go­ing signi­fi­cant upgrading and gen­tri­fi­ca­ti­on processes.

2) Zurich North, a form­er­ly sub­ur­ban area that has achie­ved a glo­bal reach thanks to the air­port and the estab­lish­ment of inter­na­tio­nal com­pa­nies, and has been expe­ri­en­cing a mas­si­ve con­s­truc­tion boom sin­ce the 1980s.

3) The Wol­ler­au – Frei­en­bach area across the can­to­nal bor­der in the can­ton of Schwyz, a form­er­ly peri-urban zone that has trans­for­med in recent years into a cent­re of inter­na­tio­nal finan­ce and a sought-after place of resi­dence for peo­p­le with very high incomes.

Zürich Nord

Wol­ler­au – Freienbach

 

Urban pro­ces­ses

The Chair of socio­lo­gy focu­sed on the modu­le Urban Pro­ces­ses and exami­ned the social con­di­ti­ons that give rise to urban qua­li­ty. It pro­cee­ded with a com­pa­ra­ti­ve ana­ly­sis of the rele­vant socio-spa­ti­al pro­ces­ses in the sub-are­as stu­di­ed, focu­sing on the actors, acti­vi­ties and urban prac­ti­ces invol­ved. The enti­re Chair was invol­ved in this pro­ject: Phil­ipp Klaus, Gabrie­la Muri Kol­ler, Rahel Nüss­li, Vere­na Polo­ni Esqui­vé, Chris­ti­an Schmid and Caro­li­ne Ting.

Today’s metro­po­li­tan regi­on encom­pas­ses very dif­fe­rent urba­ni­sa­ti­on pat­terns and urban con­stel­la­ti­ons, and the sub-are­as stu­di­ed show gre­at dif­fe­ren­ces in this respect. In order to cap­tu­re the­se, the modu­le focu­sed on two cen­tral aspects, which were ana­ly­sed at two dif­fe­rent sca­les: at a lar­ge-sca­le level, it exami­ned pro­ces­ses of urban gover­nan­ce and their influence on the deve­lo­p­ment of urban qua­li­ty. At a small-sca­le level, it loo­ked at urban qua­li­ty from the per­spec­ti­ve of the con­cre­te ever­y­day expe­ri­en­ces of users and resi­dents. As in the other modu­les, the rese­arch was very much inte­gra­ted into tea­ching, with lec­tures, semi­nars, elec­ti­ve cour­ses, mas­ter’s the­ses, design rese­arch stu­di­os and inte­gra­ted disciplines.

Year­book D‑ARCH: Socio­lo­gy 2010
Year­book D‑ARCH: Socio­lo­gy 2011
Year­book D‑ARCH: Socio­lo­gy 2012

Elec­ti­ve cour­se FS 2009 
Elec­ti­ve cour­se FS 2010
Elec­ti­ve cour­se SS 2011 
Elec­ti­ve cour­se FS 2011
Elec­ti­ve cour­se SS 2012
Elec­ti­ve cour­se FS 2012 
Elec­ti­ve cour­se SS 2013

 

Urban pro­fi­le

The modu­les of the five chairs con­tri­bu­ted very dif­fe­rent rese­arch results. Syn­the­sis the­r­e­fo­re play­ed a very important role in the rese­arch pro­cess. It was desi­gned as a joint ite­ra­ti­ve pro­cess in which the par­ti­ci­pan­ts pre­sen­ted their expe­ri­en­ces and fin­dings, put for­ward the­ses, sub­mit­ted draft pro­po­sals and enga­ged in exten­si­ve deba­te. In this pro­cess, the team distil­led six urban qua­li­ties: cen­tra­li­ty, diver­si­ty, inter­ac­tion, acces­si­bi­li­ty, adap­ta­bi­li­ty and appro­pria­ti­on. The­se six con­cepts pro­vi­de an excel­lent repre­sen­ta­ti­on of the dif­fe­rent cha­rac­te­ristics and spe­ci­fic con­stel­la­ti­ons of urba­ni­ty. Each of the urban qua­li­ties defi­ned here is addi­tio­nal­ly assi­gned three aspects that illu­mi­na­te sub-are­as of the respec­ti­ve qua­li­ty. They can be ana­ly­sed sepa­ra­te­ly and influen­ced by plan­ning, con­s­truc­tion or legal mea­su­res. Taken tog­e­ther, they can be used to crea­te an urban profile.

The urban pro­fi­le is a tool that cap­tures and com­pa­res the diver­si­ty of urban situa­tions. The aim is to learn from com­pa­ring dif­fe­rent urban situa­tions with their inher­ent depen­den­ci­es, poten­ti­als and defi­ci­ts in order to inter­pret them in a more dif­fe­ren­tia­ted way. The urban pro­fi­le can be used to ana­ly­se a wide varie­ty of situa­tions, and thus widens the per­spec­ti­ve on new forms of urba­ni­ty. Like a com­pass, it ser­ves both as a gui­de and as a start­ing point for deter­mi­ning plan­ning and urban deve­lo­p­ment stra­te­gies and mea­su­res. It can be used to inte­gra­te know­ledge and also to design spe­ci­fic plan­ning tasks and urban designs.

The results of this pro­ject were published in the book­let “Urba­ne Qua­li­tä­ten”. It has pro­ven to be very useful and inspi­ring in tea­ching and prac­ti­ce. It has attrac­ted wide­spread inte­rest among experts in plan­ning, urban design, land­scape design and archi­tec­tu­re, and also forms the basis of the methods cour­se taught by the chair of sociology.

Urba­ne Qua­li­tä­ten (2016)

 

A new repre­sen­ta­ti­on of the Zurich metro­po­li­tan region

The rich fin­dings, pro­ducts and ana­ly­ses obtai­ned in the cour­se of this rese­arch pro­cess, which have been fur­ther expan­ded and deepe­ned in sub­se­quent years, are curr­ent­ly being com­pi­led in a book with the working title ‘Metro­po­li­tan Regi­on Zurich: Urban Con­fi­gu­ra­ti­ons and Para­digms of Urban Deve­lo­p­ment’. It is edi­ted by Chris­ti­an Schmid and Caro­li­ne Ting and is sche­du­led for publi­ca­ti­on by gta Ver­lag Zurich in 2027.