Generating record sales of 31 billion Swiss francs in this financial year, Migros has secured its status of Switzerland’s largest retail company.
In its beginnings, Migros was known for its revolutionary business strategy. Loaded Ford-T trucks toured in villages and sold products at low prices to households who did not have access to city markets. This strategy allowed to cut the intermediaries and their margins, and thereforeto deliver food directly to the household table. Moreover, the company’s name alludes to the selling prices that are halfway between wholesale and retail, thus making Migros a bridge between the producer and the consumer.
Since its transition from a stock company to a cooperative federation in 1941, Migros promises to not only supply the Swiss population, but also to assume its broader social responsibility through its notorious Klubschule institution - offering public classes in fields of education, sports andculture - and continuous investments in the Culture Percentage Initiative.
Since its erection in the 1960’s, the Headquarter and Distribution Center grew in size gradually in order to respond to the increasing demands ofthe city. However, ignoring the emerging urbanity of the neighborhood, the logistical facility has kept its uncompromising logic of efficiency.
Today, the logistical complex is dictated by short-term economic priorities only and does not reflect the core values of the company - bridgingthe consumers and the products. Adopting the voice of Migros’ Chairman, the project draws a further development plan for the logisticalfacility, proposing to densify the building further to integrate production.
Adding 60,000 m2 dedicated to the logistics of production, this transformation seeks to drastically increase the efficiency of the food supplychain, but goes beyond the economic requirements by fully embracing its urban condition: a public path is carved out from the logistical mass.
The diagonal public path cuts through the totality of logistical processes, ranging from the existing distribution infrastructures at the bottom, up to the production facilities at the top. By theatrically revealing the backstage of the food supply chain, the project bridges the consumers to theproducts they consume everyday, and generates a friction between the productions of food and culture.
