The Langgrüt housing estate on Triemlifussweg was built in the 1970s as a modern way of living, with the target audience being mainly nuclear families. This was done with prefabricated concrete elements of Ernst Göhner's rational element building system.

A special feature is that the flats were sold as condominiums at the time: Through this ownership, each flat is owned by a different family. The easternmost block is excluded from this; it is owned by Credit Suisse.

About 80% of the current residents still belong to this first generation of owners, many of them meanwhile live alone, in flats that are often perceived as too large for them. In addition, their descendants are often not interested in taking over these flats.

Today, 50 years after the estate was built, the question is how to deal with these buildings, which were built for a specific era, in the future. Today's ways of life are undergoing constant transformation, which is also strongly related to changing ways of working. Former family structures are breaking up and other, more individual models of life are becoming more common, leading to more diverse forms of living together.

The original residential model of a nuclear family with the promise of a better life is thus no longer the only suitable or standard form of living nowadays. Without considering demolition and replacement with new construction, the project tests how the existing structure can be adapted to today's lifestyles.

Not only the architecture, but also the current ownership structure must adapt to these emerging changes. A newly formed ownership will replace the current one step by step. Current residents have the opportunity to sell their unused spaces to a newly formed community that manages the empty spaces together and in the collective interest. In this process, the organization happens floor-wise. Through this method, density can increase to a similar value as it was in the 1970s. According to the minimum occupancy in Zurich, this should be twice as high today.

The project shows how to intervene in a Göhner construction in order to achieve a more collective and urban living, without displacing the original identity of this construction. This is done in the form of floors. The system, as well as the construction of the long and prefabricated buildings, becomes the driver. The load-bearing structure is largely maintained, and the horizontal of the storeys is opened up by means of breakthroughs. Newly inserted walls are built into the existing structure using a cost-effective and quickly assembled balloon frame timber construction method. This results in the creation of a variety of multifunctional spaces.

The verticals of the buildings are transformed into public streets by providing access to the roof gardens. These streets activate the unused spaces and they become accessible to everybody.