News & Events: Kick-off Meeting: Kicking Off the Project: Workshop to Discuss Project Aims and Research Updates (10 September 2024)
On Tuesday, 10 September 2024, the project team, project partners and members of the advisory board came together at L200 to give updates on the seven sub-projects and gather feedback on overarching aims, individual work packages and first ideas for fieldwork. A site visit to two acute cases of construction projects followed in the afternoon to gain an insight into the current housing controversies in Zurich.
By Responsible City Team on Wed, Oct 2, 2024
After a quick welcome and introduction to the general project aims, the seven sub-projects were presented by the Responsible City Team. The team was grateful to receive feedback from our partners across the sub-projects, encouraging us to think critically and precisely about how we engage with notions including some core topics: responsibility, materiality and financialisation. An overall debriefing shortly before lunch provided an opportunity for critical feedback from the members of the advisory board and the project partners, allowing valuable input to be gathered on the further process and cooperation between the project leads. Looking to our next work period, the team encouraged us to think deeply about the socio-ecological dimensions: the need to balance social and ecological discussions on the topic of housing controversies. This would help push us towards both our core agenda and allow us to connect with rich academic and policy debates nationally and internationally.
The second part of the workshop highlighted what all the academic conversations are about for people living in one of our cities: Zurich. We visited two sites in Zurich, aiming at applying what was previously discussed to current housing controversies in the city. In Altstetten, PhD-candidates Fiona Kauer and Ismene Ehrler gave an input on the general housing situation in the neighbourhood and introduced the group to the project “Letzigarten” to be completed in 2030 and its investor, Halter AG. Buildings younger than 50 years are planned to be demolished – which would lead to the displacement of 735 tenants, according to an open letter by the research blog Mieten Marta. Léo Brumm and Nouri Abdelgadir, PhD-candidates at EPFL and UZH, led through the other site visit to the Küngenmatt project in Wiedikon, the investor being the Credit Suisse real estate fund. Although new heating systems have been installed, the buildings housing 190 inhabitants are to be replaced by 2028. In comparison to the Letzigarten project, these demolition plans attracted considerable public interest. Sabeth Tödtli from Urban Equipe offered valuable insights into the activists’ perspective on both construction projects.
This first workshop with all parties involved provided an opportunity for exchange and generated a useful list of feedback and suggestions for the further process. The team is looking forward to the next meeting in this setting, which will take place in Neuchâtel at the end of January.