In collaboration with Armon Semadeni Architects Zurich, Müller Illien Landscape Architects Zurich

Together with the garden side of a striking residential and commercial building from the early 1970s and the heterogeneous row of houses made up of small workers' houses and newer apartment buildings, the route of the Bern-Lausanne railway line forms the Stöckacker site into a triangle.

With their volume, the three four-storey buildings respond directly to the dispersed neighbourhood, whose qualities they thus strengthen. As a coherent settlement figure, the three houses are independent, continue the tradition of local settlement history and have the potential to exist sustainably in the heterogeneous environment as an identity-creating ensemble - both private and public. With its head formation, the house on Bethlehemstrasse marks its presence to the immediate public on the main street, where the petrol station, garage and service businesses have settled. The elongated building contrasts the graininess of the adjacent settlement to the north and gives it an urban closure. A spatially defined, traffic-calmed residential street is being created, which can be made available as a recreation and play area for the entire district. The scale of the house on the tracks refers to the commercial buildings located on the railway line and reacts typologically to the noise emissions of passing trains. However, the railway line is not only a source of noise, but also a traditional part of suburban settlements with their characteristic outdoor spaces and allotments. The house in the garden densifies the settlement and benefits from the new outdoor qualities. The residential and commercial building in the west comes into contact with the new settlement via the rear access and becomes part of the ensemble. The interplay of the multi-angled buildings and their interstices creates a varied, spatially defined interior space that seamlessly connects to the surroundings through widening at its edges.

[*Source: Michael Meier / Marius Hug Architekten AG - Zurich *] (https://www.meierhug.ch/projekt/siedlung-stockacker-bern)
Photos: Alexander Jaquemet, Roman Keller

Ernst Gerber AG