In collaboration with:
Chair Architecture and Design, Prof. Jan De Vylder
Chair of History and Theory of Architecture, Prof. Dr. Maarten Delbeke, Linda Stagni

Werkzeugmaschinenfabrik Oerlikon

a public space
an art exhibition
a body for a collective memory a weapons factory
a relic of swissness

Emil Bührle, arms manufacturer and art collector, is forever deeply intertwined with the history of Switzerland, Zürich and Oerlikon. Once the richest swiss man he produced weapons for the second world war, funded cultural institutions in Zürich and employed up to 60% of the population of Oerlikon in his factory, the Werkzeugmaschinenfabrik Oerlikon or WO.

This influence on our urban and social fabric, however, is hidden and bound to be forgotten. The WO, with its many faces and heterogeneous expression, has changed owners. As it still is producing air defence systems, entry is prohibited, turning the WO into a sort of black box that segregates itsself from the public sphere.
Oerlikon as a whole has been thoroughly reshaped in the last 20 years, with much of its industrial past being demolished as a result. The descendants of Bührle, many of them deeply integrated into Zürich, have retreated to the city center. The art collection of Emil Bührle, tended to by the Stiftung Bührle, has recently been moved to the Kunsthaus at the Heimplatz, where it sparked controversy. The connection to Oerlikon is not mentioned or visible, all in an effort to change the image of Bührle towards one of culture and art.
However, the hands of the heritage protection, as is often the case with such cases involving global corporation, are tied, out of fear of a hastily demolishion.

This project aims at creating spaces in the former factory of Oerlikon-Bührle, to dissolve the harsh borders to the public surroundings, integrating it into the urban fabric and thus giving a form to the heritage of Emil Bührle in the sphere of the collective memory, at the location where this history took place.

The investigation that started this process was a consequence of the reluctancy of arms factorys as a principle. The information that can be found on the factory are sparse, and the current owner showed no interest in supporting an architectural intervention. Thus, an investigation of space, uses and construction created a framework for the design.

The space create a single layer that connects all of the four factory halls together. The use is that of an art exhibition, a vessle for the paintings of Bührles art collection as of indicator for his financial success, his influence on Zürich and his role in history. This exhibition is then contrasted with the industrial reality that still takes place alongside the interventions. Connections between the 2 microcosms display the proximity of art and weapons in the sphere of economy. It highlight the relationship of factories, the generators of wealth for the capitalist elite, and the museums as ambassadors of culture, tourism and academia.

It is an attempt to curb the uncontested power that corporations have had and still have on the space of our cities, to showcase the spacial qualities that are existing, and a case study on how to interact with such complexity, obscuration and exclusion.