Money makes the world go round – a century of success for cooperative housing in Zurich

When development began, the city was facing a housing shortage due to industrialisation. Immigrant workers had no idea where to stay, and families had to live in confined spaces, sometimes even sharing them with other tenants. Aussersihl, which was not yet part of the city of Zurich at the time, was particularly badly affected.

Tenants in Zurich joined forces to form an association as early as 1891. Two years later, this became the ‘Zürcher Bau- und Spargenossenschaft’ (‘Zurich Construction and Savings Cooperative’, ZBWG). Urban planners developed architectural social utopias, such as the garden city, in response to the miserable situation. While these were popular in Zurich, traditional forms such as detached houses and buildings in the local style also came to the fore of cooperative construction here.

A broad political alliance with the Social Democrats – now a stronger force – kick-started housing funding in the early 20th century. The city council had commissioned a study back in 1896, which showed that there was not enough cheap accommodation available. This led to funding being made available: from 1907 onwards, this was via a referendum to build non-profit municipal housing and from 1910 onwards, through the provision of support to cooperatives.

The first housing cooperative funded by the city was the ‘Genossenschaft zur Beschaffung billiger Wohnungen’ (‘Cooperative for Creating Cheaper Housing’; today Berowisa), which has its ‘residential colony’ on the site between Bertastrasse and Wiesendangerstrasse. This and similar projects represented a ray of hope. However, because funds were very limited, the success of municipal funding remained modest at first.

A significant upswing in cooperative housing was possible from 1924 onwards thanks to increased municipal funding. The new non-profit residential buildings aligned with the city’s self-image as ‘Red Zurich’ in the following years, when the Socialist Party dominated the city government. The leading figure was Emil Klöti, who took over as mayor in 1928 and was the first president of the ‘Schweizerischen Verbandes für Wohnungswesen’ (‘Swiss Housing Association’). He pushed ahead with non-profit housing construction in Zurich.

The new funding policy went hand in hand with a shift towards modern design, as is evident in the guiding principles for building subsistence dwellings. In Zurich, this is demonstrated by prototype buildings such as the ‘Rotach’ show houses (1928) by Max Ernst Haefeli and the Neubühl Werkbund housing estate (1930–1932). Modernist trends are also reflected in the concept of adapting buildings to align with forms of industrialisation and rationalisation. This goes well with the image of a major city in the interwar period, an image that Zurich was starting to align with.

The desire to create homes with plenty of fresh air and sunshine also changed the architectural landscape permanently. Instead of densely-packed buildings, there were now empty plots of land with more open-ended uses. One example of this is the 1931 Sonnenhalde I housing development belonging to the Freiblick building cooperative, which is to be demolished soon.

The state supported non-profit housing throughout Switzerland during the Second World War. Cooperative buildings constructed between the 1940s and 1960s continue to shape many streets in Zurich today. This can be seen in various areas, including in Karl Kündig’s Heiligfeld estate belonging to the St. Jakob building cooperative (1943–46), which stretches along Brahmsstrasse and Albisriederstrasse. However, this rise led to saturation and monotony in the mass housing space. This was also exacerbated by the private-sector construction industry, which followed similar approaches throughout Switzerland.

These identikit estates were one of the objects of criticism in the pamphlet ‘achtung: die Schweiz’ (‘caution: Switzerland’) from 1955, written by the authors associated with Max Frisch. Nevertheless, even during this time, there were cooperative buildings that broke the usual mould. Ernst Giesel’s studio and apartment building on Wuhrstrasse is a clear example of this.

The emergence of social criticism from the late 1960s onwards also had an impact on the urban environment. The 68 movement protested against the demolition and expensive renovation of properties.

Some of the property owners at the time founded alternative cooperatives, such as Wogeno. The idea of creatively repurposing existing buildings and developing independent organisational structures for this purpose is also reflected in the Dreieck (‘Triangle’) cooperative. This organisation was formed in the 1980s and emerged from resistance to the demolition of houses by the city. It was successful: instead of connecting Zurich more closely to the motorway, a historic section of Werd was preserved and gaps between buildings closed in a sensible way. This approach of constructing buildings within existing space is more topical than ever.

Urban densification, in particular, has become more important since the turn of the 21st century – and cooperatives have contributed to this. In Zurich, high-density construction can be seen in projects on high-yield plots along the railway line, such as the Zollhaus development by the ‘Kalkbreite’ cooperative. Discussions about the future of housing also led to the founding of ‘mehr als wohnen’ (‘more than housing’) in 2007 – a merger of several cooperatives – which sets store by participation. This organisation took over the successful development of the Hunziker site in Leutschenbach, which 1,200 people now call home.