Switzerland has a long tradition of preparing itself for crises. One could say that the Swissmill tower is one of many architectures and infrastructures for potential emergencies, based on past and current concerns, such as the scarcity of food for the Swiss population. In order to guarantee the supply of grain for a wider Zurich population, the silo tower shall officially serve as a long-term storage facility. The biggest bank in Zurich, one could say.

Beyond its present function as a silo and grain tower, the building was always meant to play different roles: as a social moderator, an ecologic case study, an economic value generator, a political design tool. The tower is therefore only one concrete manifestation of a series of topics: bigger in scale and importance, then the architectural object or local manifestation.