Brunaupark is a well-functioning neighbourhood within Zurich. Built between 1980 and 1996, it combines affordable housing, shops, recreational spaces and direct access to the Allmend for around 1000 residents. Over decades, a strong and diverse community has developed here.

Today, Brunaupark is facing radical change. In 2018, 219 households received termination letters from the owner of the site, the Credit Suisse Pension Fund. The strategy was clear: demolish the existing buildings and replace them with a denser development. More floor area, more apartments, more profit.

In the middle of Zurich’s housing crisis, this raises an important question: Can densification happenwithout displacement?

Our project “Brunau grows up” proposes an alternative to tabula rasa. Instead of treating the existing buildings as obsolete, we understand them as valuable resources with social, spatial and environmental qualities worth preserving.

The project begins with lightweight vertical extensions on top of the existing structures, reusing the current framework and circulation cores to minimise demolition and embodied carbon emissions. Additional housing is created through selective extensions and carefully placed new volumes, while keeping the neighbourhood intact.

At the same time, +1 introduces new housing typologies responding to contemporary forms of living: smaller apartments for elderly residents wishing to downsize within their community, and shared housing for students and newcomers struggling to enter the city.

+1 at Brunaupark proposes another vision for Zurich: not demolition and replacement, but transformation through continuation.