A Cozy Manifesto

Aging or retired residents of Zürich are often interested in exploring alternative, collective formats of living. But they tend to be looking for a modest, rather than radical, contrast to their previous years in a private flat.

Zürich’s cooperative housing projects are only ‘collective’ to very limited degree as the plans of the units are largely indistinguishable from private apartments. But, as is discovered at Stüssistrasse 70, entirely new forms are not necessary—a restrained utopia is revealed by simply eliminating circulation as an autonomous program. Walls are removed and stairs repositioned so as to dissolve the corridor into the semi-public spaces of the units. Significantly, this annexation of the corridor does not eliminate all privacy as independent sub-units (i.e. bed and bathrooms) are easily partitioned off from the larger apartment.