Overview

The first urban act was the excavation. This gradual terra-form rendered the site of Binz topographically autonomous, and nurtured the gradual development of a custom set of norms and typologies for the site. The clay extracted from the site also literally provided the substance for the urban formation of Zurich.

Despite its inception, Binz now finds itself in a degree of stasis in light of recent development pressures at its borders. The question arrises, as the rest of the district (and Zurich) joins the development fever, is Binz the chance to construct a genuinely contemporary city from the properties of the existing? in this case, to leverage and strengthen Binz as a unique resource of difference and offer an exemplary approach to planning through strategic, and inclusive interventions that source the complete tools of planning ecology.

Such an approach would allow the questions: what to build? What to transform? What to adapt? And what to leave? To become the guiding urban design principles.