the powerful Oerlikon Bührle company, a machine and The Toni project is integrated in a conversion process not weapons producer that had marketed its own brownfield Extracting Value – Structural change just in physical terms but also as regards the economy, sites by launching a new urban neighbourhood in the in Zurich and EM2N’s Toni Site project education and city marketing. In the 1980s the places north of Zurich. where machines, foodstuffs and textiles were produced still resembled a multitude of ‘forbidden cities’ in the There, like in the western edge of Zurich, the shift toward Text by André Bideau north and west of central Zurich. But, measured in terms a service economy led to political unrest and disputes Published in EM2N – Both and, 2009 of the number of workplaces it offered, industrial produc- about zoning and the building code. The area between tion in Zurich had already passed its zenith by 1971; and the Hardbrücke and the start of the freeway to Bern is Among the effects of postmodernism and economic so, within a few years, the Toni dairy, which started opera- particularly characteristic of a transformation process that structural change is a change of the meanings embed- tions in 1977 and was once Europe’s most modern milk affected not only urban space but also its protagonists ded in urban space. Due to the increasing instability of the factory, was surrounded by service sector buildings. For and institutions from the mid-1980s on. In Zurich one ele- relationship between capital and cities the architectural its part the monolithic, self-contained Toni dairy has only ment of structural change was that the tools required for representation of the urban and public space seems to be a vaguely industrial character and lacks external spaces of the redevelopment of sites were only developed after the available only in the form of artifice. Investors, town plan- the quality to be found on other factory sites. The building industrial shells had been placed on the market and no ners and their political superiors tend to use terms such as and the site are almost congruent. It is primarily its dimen- takers could be found for a number of sites that had been identity or urbanity in inflatory ways. Particularly during sions that give this complex its urban significance. The replanned using the earlier methods. In the favourable the process of de-industrialisation, which in Zurich pro- stack of unusually deep production floors has a footprint economic climate of the late 1990s a new response to this vides the framework for postmodern urban development, that is greater than the ground floor area of the Centre situation was the rebranding of the city edge, which had architects are expected to provide the images, scenarios Pompidou. But, in contrast to the Parisian ‘culture refin- been characterised by innumerable disused or underuti- and scripts that would allow the materialisation of places ery’ completed in the same year, the yoghurt factory could lised industrial sites (like the Toni dairy), as the develop- that allow both economic promise and sustainability. The just as easily be a distribution centre, a refuse incineration ment zone ‘Zurich West’. In place of lengthy processes mutation of a yoghurt factory into a university of the arts plant or an atomic power station from the later phase of Fig. 2: Toni Factory, Zurich, 2006, interior before start of involving unwieldy zoning, cooperative development is particularly symptomatic of expectations of this kind. the Soviet Union. It documents a thematic impoverish- conversion work planning soon emerged with a municipal administration Like with the used truck tarpaulins that, in the same part ment of an industrial architecture that had reached the interested in arriving at consensus and real estate own- of the city, are transformed into accessories in the form level of generic boxes. Its original function survived for In a complex that, like the Toni factory, is only thirty ers willing to engage in discussion. For the advocates, of Freitag bags, the central aspect of the Toni Site project a mere 22 years. Then, in quick succession, followed the years old the focal point of design strategies cannot be this was the long overdue liberation from fundamentalist is to instill added value in an amorphous functional con- amalgamation of the brand Toni with other regional Swiss a contrast between authenticity and presentation. With debates with no more contact to reality; for the more tra- tainer. milk processing firms and the bankruptcy of Swiss Dairy the Escher-Wyss site in the same area of the city, where ditional left, in contrast, it represented a betrayal of public Food, the company that resulted from this fusion. After the Zurich Schauspielhaus opened a theatre branch, this interests and a step towards governance catering to the the dramatic disintegration the Toni Site came into the strategy was still possible. A former ship-building shed realestate market behind closed doors (in Zurich a coali- ownership of the Zürcher Kantonalbank (ZKB) in 2005. was reinvented by Ortner & Ortner to accommodate tion between the main parties, with a social democratic Having initially considered clearing the empty factory high culture exported from the city centre. But, unlike a majority, has been in power since 1990). for office use, the new owner, together with the canton 19th century machine factory, the Toni factory lacks any and city of Zurich, developed scenarios for recycling this kind of industrial patina that could be instrumentalised. Like the machine and foodstuff industries the Swiss edu- piece of real estate for educational purposes. A number Here the pressing question is what kind of programmes, cational system has recently undergone a phase of reposi- of Zurich architecture firms were commissioned to pro- spaces and atmospheres can be introduced into a generic tioning and consolidation that has had implications for the duce studies on this goal. Two years later the masterplan functional architecture. For EM2N the transformation of urban realm as well. The founding of the Zurich University for the Toni Site, based on EM2N’s proposals, was ap- this very deep structure into a university offers the op- of Arts (ZHdK) and the Zurich University of Applied Sci- proved by the political authorities and a rental contract portunity to ‘bring the city into the building’, to interpret ences (ZHAW) was the outcome of the reform of higher was signed transfering the site to the canton for twenty an ‘inner urbanism’ literally in the form of lots, streets education, as well as an attempt to integrate Switzerland Fig. 1: Toni Factory, Zurich, 1977, sectional diagram of years for educational use. Before construction started and addresses. Mathias Müller and Daniel Niggli do not in the Bologna reform that is being implemented through- functions at the end of 2008 ZKB sold the real estate along with see this as an inducement to romanticise either the Euro- out Europe. These institutions combine performing and the final construction project – not to the canton, but to a pean city or the iconography of the urban public realm, visual arts as well as schools for applied psychology and company that itself exemplifies the process of structural but rather to examine the discourse of the investors from social work at the location Zurich. The entire ZHdK and change: Allreal, a developer and general contractor that a conceptual standpoint. Consequently they redefine the two departments of ZHAW – functions currently distribut- grew out of the real estate and contracting operations of Zurich University of the Arts and the Zurich University of ed in 44 different locations – are to be housed on the Toni Applied Sciences, combined under a single roof, as an Site. The ensuing ‘cultural hybrid’ (the term used in the ‘education mall’. In the process they identify themselves official project documentation) lends a presence to that with a hybrid kind of public realm that is characteristic of branch of the economy that is increasingly outstripping the periphery (not far from Toni until recently Marcel Meili material production and meets the needs of postmodern and Markus Peter were designing a soccer stadium above societies. The fact that the public sector is undertaking a a shopping centre for Credit Suisse). major initiative in positioning Zurich by reprogramming

1 the Toni Site into the third-largest educational facility af- iconography aims in the opposite direction. Müller and along with others, was a provocation for formal codes of ter the ETH and the University of Zurich, but functions Niggli employ the term ‘contamination’ to emphasise their good manners as agreed upon between Zurich and Ba- merely as tenant and beneficiary of the complex, clearly appropriation of an industrial typology. And accordingly sel. The interest that Müller and Niggli show in ugliness demonstrates the specific balance of power. Although their circulation system does not pay hommage to the in general and in tinkering distinguishes them from the camouflaged in uncharismatic garb the newly created didactics of the ‘promenade architecturale’, but, in both grandchildren of Critical Regionalism, a generation for educational conglomerate has the task of promoting the haptic and atmospherical terms, condenses episodes into which subtly alienated references have functioned both urbanisation of a former industrial area, not unlike like the a sequence in which specific opportunities for identifica- as symbolic capital and a defence against postmodern waterfront HafenCity University in Hamburg, which is also tion and generic spaces follow each other. arbitrariness. Although the interests of EM2N also include made up of existing schools. a genuinely Swiss passion for the materiality of place, they understand how to address the problem of its iden- As a design metaphor the education mall does not so tity against the background of incalculable market forces much express Christoph Alexander’s ‘university as a mar- and unstable scenarios of usage. They exploit this – truly ket place’ (1) as it does the nature of professional training postmodern – conflict with potent images, putting their as part of the service sector, a view much emphasised by inner architectural interests to use in particular. politicians today. All the more numerous seem to be the variables that can, nevertheless, be used to give such an EM2N cultivate an architectural-historical pool that lies institution a presence and a public quality. In handling the outside those codes with which the scene defines taste. pancake-like factory building from 1977 EM2N avoid any Fig. 6: Athanasius Kircher, The ‘Hanging Gardens’ of Projects from various epochs of architectural history come dramatic gestures, placing their trust in the urban pres- Semiramis in Babylon, 1679 together in their open-end internal office catalogue of ref- ence that the complex will develop due to its mere size. erences. This catalogue is not used so much as a source of Its expression homogenised by a facade membrane made EM2N describe the cascading spatial sequence of spaces images and atmospheres, but – as its taxonomy illustrates that links the classroom clusters in the teaching area as an of metal and glass panels, and altered by the addition of Fig. 3: EM2N, Toni Site, Zurich, rendering – is seen more as an operative resource. References are further storeys, the Toni Site will still be unable to deny ‘identity generator’. The production floors of the size of a organised under the following headings: ‘things within ist place in the evolution of industrial architecture. The soccer field offer great potential for employing this strat- things’, ‘rule and infringement’, ‘relational’, ‘sponge-like’, conversion concept is based on an ‘inner iconicity’ that egy of excavation which also includes five light wells and ‘constellations’, ‘path through the building‘,‘precarious scenographically exploits this robust container. The bulky a vertical winter garden. The floors can be more or less transitions’, ‘iconic spaces’, ‘inner urbanism’. Gordon shell with its high-loading capacity floor slabs, large-span freely subdivided, gutted, perforated and further levels Matta-Clark is to be found in this collection, along with column grid and two-storey room heights is exploited added to them, as desired. Circulation that is scenographi- John Portman. At the two opposite ends of the economic structurally. cally exploited to the utmost is a theme that EM2N have spectrum these figures stand for an obsessive hollowing pursued in various public projects such as the Theater 11, out of architectural mass – Matta-Clark’s interventions as The sole spectacular element of the factory, a multi-sto- the Hardau Schools and the Public Record Office Basel- a comment on the waste of resources and as an expan- rey system of vehicle ramps attached to the rear of the Landschaft, and which can also be found in intimate inte- sion of artistic practice, Portman’s hotel atria as a revolu- complex with an unintentional reference to Le Corbus- riors such as the Flumserberg Holiday Home (2002 / 03). tion in the American downtown in terms of both typology ier’s design for the European Parliament in Strasbourg, These decisions can be the result of economic factors – as and real estate. Along the lines of Gordon Matta-Clark is hijacked and made into the externally visible starting in the case of the budget for the Holiday Home, which who trained as an architect and gave the standardised point of the education mall: EM2N incorporate the con- dictated a focus on certain special aspects consequently products of the American balloon-frame architecture crete structure in a spatial figure that drills through the Fig. 4: Le Corbusier, Congress Centre, Strasbourg, worked out in a fetishistic way – or they can follow struc- an afterlife, EM2N appropriate Toni as a site of Fordian entire building and has its counterpart in the form of a competition 1964 turally imposed constraints – as is the case with the Public mass production through their subjective act of creative ramp at the main entrance. This circulation system is Record Office or Toni. destruction. an expressive abstract figure that fathoms the complex both horizontally and vertically. Its main characteristic is With their attempts to mobilise internal space in an almost a sequence of spaces, diagonal in section, which empties subversive way EM2N have expanded the Swiss Box by into a mighty ‘sala terrena’. The cascade of space recalls adding a haptic, event-based dimension. In the case of the Kunstgewerbeschule at the entrance to the indus- the Community Centre Aussersihl (1999–2004), which had trial district, whose design was inspired by the Bauhaus come under fire from local politicians, the ability to tacti- in Dessau completed a short time earlier. (2) Whereas cally exploit abnormalities and uncertainties in the brief Gropius’ Bauhaus building was an attempt to propagate led to a responsive and situative concept. This project, an architecture embedded in industrial logic, at Toni the

Fig. 5: EM2N, Toni Site, Zurich, circulation diagram

2 garden and the function of the upper school floor – and The sponge-like deep plans of Hans Scharoun, Alvar Notes: justify them in terms of spectacle – remains to be seen, Aalto or Sir John Soane’s Bank of England figure as inner especially as the artificial streets and squares, like in a architectural references. With its system of ‘streets’ and (1) Christopher Alexander, A Pattern Language, New York mall, will not be an unsupervised public realm. One can ‘squares’ the circulation figure lures the public into the 1977. await with a certain amount of incredulousness the prox- depths of the building volume, whose edges are occupied imity of students and the ‘modern, urban crowd’ that the by small-scale uses and thus individualised. Externally, it (2) Adolf Steger, Karl Egender, Kunstgewerbeschule, Zu- investors wish to attract to the apartments in the prow is only the reappropriated concrete ramp (now used for rich, 1930–1933. of the factory. There, in addition to student apartments, a different purpose) that signalises the public character a residential high-rise building with spectacular views is of the future university: its complex internal life is more (3) Peter Sloterdijk, Schäume. Plurale Sphärologie, Frank- to be created on ten floors above the library. The returns blurred than articulated – apart from the entrance situa- furt a. M. 2004. from this air rights development clearly document the tion – and indeed even veiled by the façade membrane. symbiosis of public and private interests, whereas the When EM2N ‘bring the city into the building’, private and (4) Rem Koolhaas, The Generic City, in: S,M,L,XL, Rot- education mall below almost becomes a commentary on public are reversed – in contrast to the Novartis Cam- terdam 2005. the constitution of postindustrial public realm – and on pus in Basel, a non-public site with office, research and gentrification, Zurich-style. production buildings based on a master plan by Vittorio This PDF was downloaded from http://www.em2n.ch. Magnago Lampugnani that imposes a ground floor arcade Copyrights for pictures and text are covered by the Pub- In his essay ‘The Generic City’ Koolhaas describes Zurich on each architectural object and event. In contrast to the lisher. All image credits can be looked up in EM2N – Both as a city that now is developing only in the direction of the Novartis Campus, at Toni urbanity is not a figure of or- and on page 235. earth’s centre, in a kind of ‘reverse archeology’. (4) Given der and objectivisation; inner urbanism seeks to achieve the petrification of the city’s appearance, even the most identity and distinction more by means of differentiation, timid attempts at installing architectural icons fail in Zu- adaptation and subversion of a given site. rich. As one of the largest continuous pedestrian zones in Fig. 7: Gordon Matta-Clark, Conical Intersect, 1975 Europe, with excellent access and perpetual event stimu- lation, the core city has banished change underground or to the periphery. Correspondingly, Zurich has seen a dra- matic transformation of its western and northern edges since de-industrialisation. But in the meantime, the signs of the careful processing and curation of an urban legacy can be found there, too. Ever since the well-known club ‘Rohstofflager’, in the course of its nomadic wanderings across Zurich’s various industrial sites, discovered the empty Toni Site in 2003, the place has begun to establish itself among people from the creative industries. In a way comparable to the earlier Steinfels site, Toni now plays a key role in the colonialisation of Zurich West, which has Fig. 9: Cesar Pelli, Pacific Design Center, West Holly- developed from an industrial ghost to a zone of consump- wood, 1975 tion – not unlike the cycle of Freitag bags. On a Saturday evening, it is no longer the members of subcultures, but In architectural terms ‘inner urbanism’ is able to fathom suburbanites who satisfy their entertainment needs in Zu- what Peter Sloterdijk has addressed in his ‘spherology’ rich West. Ambiguous economies and temporary uses using the metaphor of foam. (3) In an almost ironic way have made way for a less risky, but trendy mix of multiplex the perforated yoghurt factory delivers a commentary on cinemas, loft apartments and fitness clubs. Urbanity of the constitution of the public realm in the post-industrial this kind is also authentic. Precisely what kind of contri- leisure and education society. As a design theme, inner bution an industrial relict ‘contaminated’ with students, urbanism has a dialectic that extends from Alberti’s anal- yuppies, and party people can make here remains to be ogy of the city as a large house and the house as a small seen in 2013. Fig. 8: John Portmann, Marriot Arquis, Atlanta, 1985 city by way of the structuralism of Team Ten to the cir- culation interiors by OMA. Nevertheless, the sequences of spaces remain just a great promise, Müller and Niggli themselves conceding that a building in use 24 hours a day would have better suited their concept. Whether the circulation can adequately animate the ramp system, roof

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