ETH Zürich   Studio Adam CarusoETH Zürich  Studio Adam CarusoETH Zürich  Studio A. CarusoETHZ   Studio Caruso

Dwelling is an activity—a dynamic process shaped by the flow of people. Linthal, in the canton of Glarus, once flourished through the textile industry but declined with its disappearance. Amid underused buildings in this quiet town, Kosthaus stands on a broad meadow in the valley.

Originating in the 19th century, the Kosthaus was a pragmatic housing model for industrial workers—marked by rationality, repetition, and minimal material use. Typically built as row houses, they prioritized efficiency over comfort.

This thesis explores the adaptive reuse of a former Kosthaus into a flexible housing model that accommodates short-, mid-, and long-term stays within one architectural framework. It aims to show how rural contexts can offer socially integrated, adaptable alternatives to urban housing—responding to contemporary shifts in labor, mobility, and community.

The Linthal Kosthaus includes four distinct units under one roof. Its original spatial logic—a sequence of compact, interconnected rooms—offers surprising potential. Rather than erasing these historical features, the project reclaims them as assets for reimagined collective living.

A new timber extension adds modular rooms divided by curtains, allowing residents to reconfigure spaces and mediate privacy and shared use. Openings in the original façade connect old and new; dismantled bricks were reused in the garden as thermal masses—absorbing heat by day, releasing it by night.

As visitor and resident flows change throughout the year, the project supports varied occupancy modes, household configurations, and rhythms of use. In doing so, it reactivates a forgotten typology—transforming it from a relic of industrial austerity into a model for inclusive, future-oriented rural life.

By investigating the history of Glarus it became apparent that the textile industry played a significant role. Described as a pioneer work, the heroic and linear narrative still plays an important role in the canton’s identity today. Inspired by Ursula Le Guin’s concept of the carrier bag, a collection of stories was gathered describing that the Glarnerland isn’t only about the heydays of the industry but also about the possibilities it left behind.

One of the stories to be told is explained by Peter Jenny. In an interview, he mentioned that besides the industrial past, the Glarnerland has the quality of serving as a niche and by that attracting artists and other people involved in the cultural scene. After the textile industry came to a halt at the end of the 20th century, space became available that could be exploited. Examples such as the Palais Jaune in Diesbach in the 1980s or the still active Hollenstein in Ennenda illustrate what Jenny was referring to. Both places offered space to communities of people involved in the cultural sector where they could create their own environment, hidden from the rush in the cities.

Also, the Hänggiturm shows a straightforward way of representing the history of the textile past. Reapplying Ursula Le Guin’s method to analyze the building it became clear that the seemingly perfect appearance of the ensemble has more stories
to tell. The old, original factory building was supposed to serve as a base for the relocated Hänggiturm. As the building was a bit too narrow, it was demolished in the 90s and replaced by a new building with the same appearance. One irregularity that illustrates the orchestration is the large basement with an underground garage.

How does this “Niche” manifest itself?
The relocation of the post office that is currently inhabiting the base of the building offers the possibility to introduce a new use. As an extension of the existing cultural network, a residency for artists is implemented into the partly vacated building. Equipped with small appartements it allows the guests to inhabit the building for any length of time. The floor slab to the basement is cut open to unveil the orchestration and to provide the basement with natural light. The space once used as a garage is reframed into a Werkhalle, ready to be appropriated by the inhabitants, starting with a ceramic workshop in which tiles are produced which are installed on the upper floors. Inspired by the structure of the Chelsea Hotel
the ground floor is transformed into the new Lobby of the building. Together with the existing Anna Göldi Museum in the Hänggiturm, the lobby mediates between the public and the newly implemented internal world. The bar, reception, and collective kitchen on one hand welcome the public of Ennenda into the building and on the other hand, serve as an extension of the inhabitants’ living rooms, enabling a community to form around the residence. The seven existing bathrooms on the upper floors allow the plans to be altered into seven smaller apartments. Equipped with a bed and a small kitchen they provide a basis for the individual occupation of the inhabitants.

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Referring to Lucius Burckhardts ‘Der kleinstmögliche Eingriff’ written in the 1980s, the project aims to de-objectify the Marriott Hotel that is located at the most central locations, yet remains mostly unnoticed by the cities’ inhabitants. In the sense of Burckhardts aesthetic survey, the project follows six paths that lead up to the many entrances of the building and proposed the smallest possible interventions to initiate transformation. By promoting a change in perception of the building and its relationship to the urban landscape the buildings strength of accessibility can once again be valued. It could then become a space for the public that ultimately prevents it from demolition.

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The project explores the relationship of existing and intervention, the simultaneity of the market and storage as the current program and the sports center as a new form of cultural use are thematised and spatially intertwined.

Juxtaposition as an instrument to create complexities and contradictions. The tran- sitions between old and new, temporary and permanent, are consciously negated, leading to a new relationship of coexisting spaces without the enforcement of any external changes to the existing building.

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Book Final Submission
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Book Pin Up 2
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Following Traces
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Document 01
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Document 02
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Document 03
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Document 04
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