Thanks to its linear orientation the new building with single storey apartments and row houses establishes an order in its heterogeneous surroundings. The shape of the site and the topography, the orientation to the sun and the wish for a low silhouette determine its form.

Wohnüberbauung Spiracker, Gockhausen, Fischer Architekten AG Zürich

The popular residential district of Gockhausen is located close to the city of Zurich and slopes gently northwards. The development pattern is dispersed: the form and character of the buildings differ from street to street and determine the nature of what was once a rural village.

The elongated new building consists of three units containing single-storey apartments and four two-storey row houses of different widths and depths. The staggered buildings and the balconies make the individual houses within the row legible and visually reduce the length of the volume. A series of garden sheds along the southern boundary separates the generously dimensioned private outdoor space from the neighbouring site.

The variety of housing types offers considerable flexibility of use. The daytime rooms are consistently oriented towards the garden side, whereas the bedrooms face northeast, towards the small access road. A spatial layer consisting of the ancillary rooms and the vertical circulation forms a puffer between them.