Dialogues on Densification. Stories from Zurich

In the next decades, the city of Zurich anticipates a population increase of 25% over current numbers. The population is growing rapidly and there is little room to expand. This means that to accommodate future inhabitants the city will have to be densified or, in other words, to increase the number of housing units within the existing boundaries of built-up areas - as also required by the revision of the Swiss Federal Spatial Planning Act in March 2013. But urban densification is also a highly contested terrain as it brings multiple actors and interests against each other -as we have seen in recent street protests for affordable housing. Indeed, behind what seems an intuitively “simple” notion of urban transformation following the growth of population in a given area, hides a deeper clash between commercial interests and citizens’ rights (right to the home/right to the city) exacerbated by the phenomenon of financialization, that in Zurich like in most global capital-cities transformed housing into commodities. Furthermore, densification raises ideological questions such as the opportunity, for ecological and ethical reasons, to pursue unlimited economic and urban growth.

Urban densification concerns all citizens as it has an impact on existing built infrastructure and service provision from housing to public transport, from parks and public spaces to schools and other collective facilities. Although all inhabitants of the Zurich urban region are affected by the spatial and social consequences of densification, this topic is often approached -from the city administration as well as experts and researchers - in technical, abstract, and quantitative terms. Its importance, dynamics, and consequences are therefore difficult for non-experts to understand. Even practicing architects and professionals in the field of architecture and urban design – who often experience only a limited part of this process - lack an overarching understanding of its broader impact.

This Agora project (Dialogues on Densification. Stories from Zurich) developed jointly by Prof. Jonathan Sergison (director of the Institute of Urban and Landscape Studies at the Accademia di Architettura in Mendrisio at USI), Prof.Tom Avermaete (chair of the History and Theory of Urban Design at ETH Zurich), Dr.Giulia Scotto (Institute of Urban and Landscape Studies at the Accademia di Architettura in Mendrisio at USI), and the Agora expert Maya Kägi Götz of the Zentrum Architektur Zürich (ZAZ) BELLERIVE aims at making densification and its consequences visible and understandable to the broader public. At the same time, the project offers a space of dialogue where the actors involved in the densification process – the city administration, entrepreneurs, and investors as well as those traditionally excluded from this debate - citizens of all genders, ages, and backgrounds - can express themselves and cover each other's positions.

To do so, this Agora project, Dialogues on Densification. Stories from Zurich will consist of an exhibition (with workshops and guided tours), five public dialogues, and five collective walks across the rapidly changing urban context of Zurich.