Zurich: The Latest Architecture and News

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With the intention of maximizing available space and avoiding steep construction costs, researchers from ETH Zurich’s Department of Architecture have devised a concrete floor slab that with a thickness of a mere 2cm, remains load bearing and simultaneously sustainable. Inspired by the construction of Catalan vaults, this new floor system swaps reinforced steel bars for narrow vertical ribs, thus significantly reducing the weight of construction and ensuring stability to counter uneven distributions on its surface.

As opposed to traditional concrete floors that are evidently flat, these slabs are designed to arch to support major loads, reminiscent of the vaulted ceilings found in Gothic cathedrals. Without the need for steel reinforcing and with less concrete, the production of CO₂ is minimized and the resulting 2cm floors are 70% lighter than their typical concrete counterparts.

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The Centre Le Corbusier, the final project of renowned architect Le Corbusier, has reopened to the public in Zurich following an extensive renovation. Completed in 1967, the scheme is only of the only Le Corbusier buildings to be constructed almost entirely from glass and steel: realizing his concept of the synthesis of architecture, life, and art in real life.

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For ten consecutive years, Vienna ranks first in the Mercer survey on cities with the best quality of life in the world. In this edition to the global ranking, eight Western European cities join the top ten, even when "trade tensions and populist undercurrents continue to dominate the global economic climate", as Mercer points out in its report.

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Herzog & de Meuron has released details of their proposed Forum UZH, creating a new center for education and research on the city campus of the University of Zurich. The new building is a seen as a crucial element for ensuring the future viability of Zurich as a higher education hub, upgrading and consolidating an existing aging, dispersed campus.

Due to be completed in 2027, the Forum UZH will occupy a prominent corner site, combining expansive public space with the firm’s recognizable clean, contemporary language. Situated in the old city’s university quarter, dominated by stand-alone buildings set back from the street on below-ground plinths and terraces, the Forum UZH forms the 21st-century embodiment of the stately urban campus.

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