Triemli Personalhäuser

The demolition of the Triemli personnel housing was originally planned for 2023. Zirkular’s assignment was to find out whether the concrete components can be reused. In collaboration with experts, the staff houses were examined and all aspects of concrete reuse were discussed in a workshop. The resulting report provides a comprehensive overview of the reuse of reinforced concrete, from the architectural and the structural to the dismantling, logistics and marketing. It serves as a basis and inspiration for future projects and studies on concrete reuse.

Shortly before the results were published, the Zurich municipal council campaigned for the preservation of the buildings. The information on the components compiled by Zirkular was published in the component catalog for the Juch Areal competition, but was never made available to the competition teams. Independently of our work on the project, an ideas competition was held by ZAS (Züricher Arbeitsgruppe für Städtebau – “Zürich Workgroup for Urban Design”) which provided impressive arguments against “stockpiling demolition”.  Zirkular expressly welcomes this development, as the preservation of existing buildings is always preferable to their reuse.