The Growing House

Even the big companies don’t believe in the bright future of Thurgauerstrasse, they once predicted. What follows the emptiness, boredom and monotony? Often it’s interim uses, before a building is cleared, then demolished, then replaced by a new one.

Is there an alternative to this? Could one imagine a house with no clear before and after, but an ever in between? A house in constant change?

I propose to transform the trendhouse, one of the older office buildings at Thurgauerstrasse, in a hybrid building, shared by a school, residents and interim users. With these diverse uses the house becomes more resistant to short and long-term vacancy. The institutional and the informal, the old and the new, coexist and challenge each other.

The house gets the possibility to grow - over time, with its users and new functions.