237VEZ
Verteilzentrale: New Urban Quarter in Pratteln
Commissioned Study
Client: Logis Suisse AG
Competition: 2017
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The aim of this project is to let a lively quarter emerge from and on the tract of a former distribution center [Verteilzentrale] of the retailer Coop. The proposed strategy of “continuity in building” is inspired by the characteristic building stock of the plot and its surroundings. The pre-existing, small single family houses to the north are mirrored on the south side. These units are complemented with townhouses that feature living on the ground level and serve as a transfer in scale to new structures. A new residential courtyard–formed by individual houses with both different and repetitive typologies as well as differentiated development of the heights–includes a valuable and precisely incised garden courtyard. The pre-existing sugar silo has been interwoven with a new dwelling tower to create an icon representing the new neighborhood, while the school borrows a specific roof profile from typical local sheds. The result is a new quarter that is able to build its identity from the familiar and which does not function as a transitory place but as a destination.