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

The project aimed to reactivate the former “Mosterei” as a contemporary cidery, capable of processing fruit sourced from surrounding orchards, silvapastures, and agroforestry systems, as envisioned during the research phase. The intention was to re-establish the Linthal cidery as a central figure in the revival of a once-thriving, now largely forgotten, regional agricultural tradition.
 
Upon first inspection, the architecture of the building strongly evokes the appearance of a sacred structure. The tower and expansive roof in particular create a spatial division reminiscent of a nave and transept, reinforcing this impression.
 
A key feature of the new cidery is the garden located behind the main building. Historically, this area housed a fruit orchard over 70 years ago. The reimagined "Mostereigarten" draws inspiration from the Hortus Conclusus and traditional monastic gardens, reflecting the initial architectural reading of the cidery as a place of identity and symbolic significance within the context of agricultural production. Like the monastery gardens, it functions as a site of experimentation, with various soil types and species of apples, pears, and other fruit trees. With the yields from the adjacent orangery and herb garden, the fruits are supplemented with products like apricots, cranberries or rhubarb in order to create new products and flavors. Selected varieties from this “laboratory” are then propagated in the nursery and distributed regionally. A new pavilion replaces the former garage and serves as a venue for public tastings, gatherings, and garden-related activities.
 
The original structure consists of two distinct sections: a former cow stable and an annex constructed a century ago for the original Mosterei. The stable now houses the Production Hall, where fruit is processed and pressed. The annex contains the bottling area, where the juice is packaged into bottles or bags.
 

The Production Hall’s spatial concept is inspired by the traditional layout of tithe barns, historically used for storing agricultural levies owed to the church. To accommodate the cidery’s modern machinery—such as the two-belt press and the washing-and-grinding system—ceiling structures have been removed and internal walls replaced with supporting columns, creating a more open and functional interior.
 
In compliance with cantonal food sanitation regulations, the production areas are designed to ensure hygiene and control. As the existing outer shell of the former stable is permeable, glass boxes in the interior are erected at the points, where fruit is exposed to the environment in order to keep the surroundings clean and protected.

silentwitness.hotglue.me

 Since the start of the industrial revolution, the western social system has been built on constant growth. Growth in population, economic performance, technological capabilities, cultural output - no area of human life has been untouched by this dynamic.

But it can no longer be ignored that we are at a breaking point. The planetary boundaries have been reached or already exceeded in many areas. The climate crisis as well as the biodiversity crisis are both negative consequences of this system.

A change of course is therefore not only needed, but inevitable due to demographics. Demographic developments will radically transform the society we know. Even if it still seems to be a distant future in Switzerland at the moment, the population here will also start to shrink in a few decades, even in urban areas. This is already the case in many European countries, and there are also areas in Switzerland that have been shrinking for decades. The area around the Klausen Pass is just such an area.

This project examines two case studies on both sides of the Klausen Pass to find out what kind of architecture makes sense in a shrinking society. How can places be created that enable a sustainable form of growth and coexistence in such a location? On the Glarus side, a new scheme is proposed for the former woollen weaving mill in Rüti, while on the Uri side, an new approach is implemented in the former Gasthof St. Anton in Spiringen.

Such shrinking places have one advantage: the forces of the market are significantly weaker and projects that are not aimed at optimising profits also have a chance to thrive. There is an opportunity to utilise these places creatively through small interventions and make them usable for society.

The projects are characterised by the fact that they consist of a large number of small interventions that can be carried out without great expense over a longer period of time. If an intervention is a success, it can be built upon; if it is a failure, it can be reacted to. In this context, architecture is not understood as a project, but as a process.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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The Memories of the House Museum is devoted to the domestic spaces of textile industry related housing in Ennenda, Kanton Glarus. This museum spreads all over the village, like a fabric of spaces, each giving a specific impression of a domestic space.

The main exhibition is located in the former industrial site of the Jenny factory in Ennenda. It is situated on the ground floor of a Hängeturm, a reconstruction of a historical local building typology, specifically created to dry freshly printed fabrics. The exhibition consists of 1:1 reconstructions of 19th century domestic spaces from Ennenda. Copying, relocating and rearranging the rooms allows to compare the conditions of dwelling between different social classes that were all involved in the textile industry. It is an attempt to revise the way the local history has been written and to counterbalance the inequality of documentation and preservation of local buildings and stories. The reconstructions are built in timber, each with one section as a plaster cast of the original space. The exhibition of physical spaces is accompanied by pieces of local oral history in the form of specific stories told over speakers.

The Museum spreads into the village and the interventions at Kirchweg are the most direct extension of the museum programme. The row of houses at Kirchweg is under heritage protection and despite having survived for almost two hundred years, some of the houses have started to decay after losing the uses of the ground floor spaces. Previously some of those spaces were used for commercial functions. The houses had stayed relevant because they had the necessary room for adaptation: physically in the form of extensions on the northern side, legally in the form the law. Today this adaptation is partly hindered by heritage protection. With my interventions I aim to find a method to adapt three of those ground floor spaces and to restore their former use, whilst providing a programme that is needed by the museum whilst also becoming a cultural and public space for residents of Ennenda.

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The canton of glarus was strongly influenced by the industry of the cotton manufacture in the 19th century. The former cotton printing plant on the Löntsch in Netstal, Canton Glarus is representative of the industrial ensembles that were built at that time. Unfortunately, many of these have already been destroyed and this ensemble is also not sufficiently protected and is therefore threatened with demolition. The Stöckli AG company, founded around the same time 200m further downstream, has had consistent growth and is therefore strongly interwoven with the village today. However, its possible expansion is limited by the river, the cantonal road and an interwoven residential area. In 1976, the company Stöckli AG bought the old industrial ensemble with the idea of demolishing it if necessary and integrating the area into their production with a new building. In order to prevent this, the potential in preserving this ensemble has to be shown to the company on various levels. Their offices, reception as well as an exhibition space could be brought under one roof in the beautiful interiors of the old industrial ensemble and together with the remaining buildings of the ensemble, the inner courtyard could be made into a village centre for Netstal. This would clarify their corporate identity as a traditional, innovative family business that has grown together with the village to its current size. But before this scenario becomes credible, a new spatial organisation of the site must be sought. The old industrial building, or more precisely the location of the ensemble, must be freed from its function as a potential production space or storage area, as this would inevitably lead to demolition. This is where this diploma project comes in. With a punctual intervention that functions like a catalyst, a rethinking of the company's strategy and a new organisation of the site is initiated. By significantly improving the logistical situation of the heterogeneous Stöckli site (with a new, efficient high-bay warehouse and a new axis that connects production, warehousing and shipping), it opens up new thinking space for the sustainable development of Stöckli AG into a shared future with the village of Netstal.The canton of glarus was strongly influenced by the industry of the cotton manufacture in the 19th century. The former cotton printing plant on the Löntsch in Netstal, Canton Glarus is representative of the industrial ensembles that were built at that time. Unfortunately, many of these have already been destroyed and this ensemble is also not sufficiently protected and is therefore threatened with demolition. The Stöckli AG company, founded around the same time 200m further downstream, has had consistent growth and is therefore strongly interwoven with the village today. However, its possible expansion is limited by the river, the cantonal road and an interwoven residential area. In 1976, the company Stöckli AG bought the old industrial ensemble with the idea of demolishing it if necessary and integrating the area into their production with a new building. In order to prevent this, the potential in preserving this ensemble has to be shown to the company on various levels. Their offices, reception as well as an exhibition space could be brought under one roof in the beautiful interiors of the old industrial ensemble and together with the remaining buildings of the ensemble, the inner courtyard could be made into a village centre for Netstal. This would clarify their corporate identity as a traditional, innovative family business that has grown together with the village to its current size. But before this scenario becomes credible, a new spatial organisation of the site must be sought. The old industrial building, or more precisely the location of the ensemble, must be freed from its function as a potential production space or storage area, as this would inevitably lead to demolition. This is where this diploma project comes in. With a punctual intervention that functions like a catalyst, a rethinking of the company's strategy and a new organisation of the site is initiated. By significantly improving the logistical situation of the heterogeneous Stöckli site (with a new, efficient high-bay warehouse and a new axis that connects production, warehousing and shipping), it opens up new thinking space for the sustainable development of Stöckli AG into a shared future with the village of Netstal.

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The office building at Gartenhofstrasse 17 was built in 1966 by Sigmund Feigel (1921 - 2004). While the adjacent Zweierstrasse is lined by a row of office buildings constructed around the same time, Gartenhofstrasse 17 is slightly set back into the street, reaching into the realm of residential buildings and neo-classicist factory buildings.

Throughout its lifespan the building had been renovated several times. The roof and the party walls on both sides have been isolated, the canopy renewed, and in 2011 the old facade panels were exchanged. The new facade, designed by Rolf Schaffner, led to a drastic decrease in energy consumption. The different construction periods result in a „bricolage des temps“.

Currently three of the building’s six stories are empty due to the relocation of municipal police offices, making the future of Gartenhofstrasse 17 uncertain.

Only few interventions are necessary to fundamentally change the organization of the building. 

On the inside a new form of living takes place where domestic spaces and the workplace fade into each other. From the outside the additions reinterpret the appearance of the building within its urban setting. While keeping the integrity of Schaffner´s facade intact, the side facades are opened with large pivoting windows that create a vis-à-vis to the adjacent neo-classicist buildings. In the courtyard one of the three parking garages has been opened, creating an alley way between the former office building and a new atelier building. On the front side an extension of the canopy allows a glimpse into the hidden world of the backyard. 

The ways in which particular elements, spaces and structures are transformed remind us of the „rococoization“ of gothic churches.  By introducing a new grammar, given things change the way we perceive them. Despite the obvious friction between building periodes and languages there derives a new unity.

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Chair of Architecture and Construction
Adam Caruso
The project is presented as a folder, a collection of stories, architectural details, and material understanding, to provide information about the handling of the building and propose a resource for an ongoing transformation. The pages and stories can be rearranged, offering multiple readings and interpretations of the building, architectural fragments, and the interventions.

The research project engages with the hotel building known as Marriott that opened in the 1970s as an autonomous object in the city center of Zurich.The research unfolded stories about the building from contact with the original architect of the building, the interior designers, and the Head of Engineering who has worked in the building for over 25 years. Since the opening of the hotel, the idea of a «complete work of art» has been defiant. Over the years, the building underwent numerous modifications and transformations, revealing mutable versions of itself to keep up with the changing trends in hotel architecture.The generic new interiors have alienated the building’s interior from its shell. Each trend lasts for a generation and is custom- made for international hotel guests.The real users of the building, the workers, are thereby overlooked.The spatial separation between the front and back of the house is disproportionate.

The light touch aims to transform unused or historically interesting spaces in the hotel by critically reframing the existing layers and instrumentalising what is there.The actions are planned following the skill and expertise of the Engineering Team members of Marriott who have been in charge of every change ever made. Each space is appropriated to a new programme to tell the stories I encountered and reveal (im)material values that the building holds. Old, intermediate, and new layers create new atmospheres that are characterful to reconnect the hotel to its users and stay relevant in the future.

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Reuse of Waste into new use

Food is the one of the most central topics and relevant to climate change that we are facing, because it embedded in the daily life of everyone and closely connected with the big climate and ecological context. Its impact in the social, political and economical scale force us to rethink the way of dealing huge food circle. The future food production is about reproduction. Thousands tons of food waste is producing in the building site of HERDERN areal every day. Since all of the bio-waste can be easily treated with modern industry and reused as bio-fertiliser, it brings a huge economical potential to the fruit market of the site.

Productivity dances with public life together

The Architecture sets out to deliver an image of coming life of new Zurich, an inspiring environment in which to have a special experience of a sustainable civic life. The spirit of the proposal starts with the circumstance of the project as an important fruit and vegetables logistic centre at the old Zurich industrial area, where almost like a forgotten place of the city during the day, as nearly the activities of the site happens in the midnight. The new adding program aims to work with the existing logistic function of the site together, and bring the daily civic life into it.

Machines and garden

The design is conceived as an idealised vision of factory, bringing together production activities and landscape in an almost Arcadian composition of machines and gardens. To largely respect the existing program of the site, not to obstacle the current use, the new intervention is proposed to sit on the old building. Logistic space of upper floor of existing building will be incorporated into a new arrangement with productive machines in between, where old construction will be continued and reinforced. A productive public garden will occupy the whole top floor with new roof structure. The workers at the site will be the beneficial owner of the new interventions, since the waste of the existing site is the main source of the upper production, which makes profit for the both sides. The public will see in the factory an interconnected program that delivering a big image of living being in the every phase of life circle in a symbiotic garden around. The Garden is proposed to connect the existing public activities in the Brache along the Limmat river, and to be a destination and a meeting point for citizens as the new city takes shape slowly around it.

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The task of re-using Ciba triggered two main questions in me: Firstly, what meaning the term re-use could signify and comport and secondly, what constitutes the identity of a place.
The concept of circular economy possesses a high potential regarding the problems and questions of the CIBA areal. It is about thinking the economy in circular processes, i.e. sharing, leasing, reusing, repairing, reconditioning, and finally recycling products and materials. The average demolition of ten houses in Switzerland per day and construction waste’s share of four-fifths of the total Swiss waste proves how vital circular thinking is to future architecture.
By designing the component catalogue, we can give the materials used in the Ciba Buildings an identity and therefore seeing them as a resource. However, in addition to recognising the material value, the value of the work needed to produce the component must also be considered. A building component can be looked at as an accumulation of materials, working processes, assembling operations and production design steps.
The goal of the intervention is to turn the Bau610, the former canteen of CIBA, with minimal interventions in an accessible productive space. The main task of the building is the circulation, i.e. the access for city residents and the movement of the building components.
The building components of dismantled structures are delivered, stored, processed, and distributed again. For this purpose the roof and the basement are connected by a crane in the north and a stair tower with a goods lift facing south.
The new structures are „dressed“ by the ever-changing components stored in the building and display the material accumulation and continuous process.
In this project there isn’t a finished designed building but a proposal for a way of thinking about architecture and the built environment. Instead of production- and consumption-oriented architecture we should advocate circular processes in the architecture and the building industry.
To conclude with a quote of Thomas Hirschhorn, a contemporary artist that greatly inspired this design process : “It is not about re-using, it is about working with what is there”.

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